PAKISTAN - The External Factors, Led By Iraq - The Coming Challenges - Part 8.

President Pervez Musharraf has done many things to please the US, his main ally among the big powers, including the recent capture of a key member of Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda. But he has been indirectly trying hard to convince the Bush administration that sending Pakistani troops to Iraq, as part of a Saudi-sponsored plan for an Islamic force, would be counter-productive to both his regime and the US.

The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al Faisal, on July 29 said there had been preliminary discussions about the possibility of forming a Muslim force and deploying it in Iraq to supplement the US-led coalition. An Arab League ministerial committee on July 29 discussed the prospect in Tunis, but no decision has since been made. Many Arab and Muslim states have indicated they would be willing to get more involved in Iraq if they could do so under a UN umbrella, rather than a perceived American one.

After talks with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, however, Prince Saud modified his proposal in a way that could encourage President Musharraf to reconsider. On Aug. 1, Prince Saud told reporters the proposed Muslim force should replace the US-led MNF in Iraq rather supplement the American-led occupation, and that the deployment he was calling for should have a UN mandate.

Under these circumstances, from Musharraf's perspective, a major Pakistani military contribution could be beneficial to Islamabad as this would boost his regime's standing in the Muslim world and internationally. But on Aug. 2 Musharraf's aides said they were examining Prince Saud's new proposal "very carefully" and were "checking" the matter directly with the Saudi government through Pakistan's ambassador to the kingdom. Pakistan was to consult with the other Muslim states as well.

Prince Saud on Aug. 1 said: "The dispatching of Muslim troops to Iraq needs a number of requirements to be met, (including) that these troops would be replacing the coalition forces currently there, not supplementing them". And, echoing Moussa's demand, Prince Saud said the Muslim troops should be sent only at Baghdad's request and work under the auspices of the UN. He added: "The request should come from the Iraqi government and should have a full and apparent backing from all Iraqi people ... (These troops) should work under the auspices of the United Nations".

Prince Saud had discussed the idea to send Muslim troops to Iraq with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi when the two visited the kingdom last month. Prince Saud on Aug. 1 pointed out: "The UN should be in charge of the political process in Iraq including the preparation for elections to choose a new government".

Both Powell and Allawi said Iraq's immediate neighbours would not be asked to participate in such a deployment, but their position was somewhat different from Prince Saud's new stand. Premier Allawi said: "We will study the suggestion and we continue to discuss it with leaders of Arab and Muslim states, excluding neighbouring countries, to participate in the multinational force". Allawi also said Iraq was seeking assistance from friendly states to stem the flow of funds to insurgents, saying the time had come for a "strong and clear stand" against terror.

According to Powell, "many" Muslim countries had been considering participating in the force. A senior US official accompanying Powell to Saudi Arabia said the idea was not to replace the current US-led force comprising troops from some 30 countries, but to have a "supplemental" force.

Prince Saud added: "This proposal responds to demands by many Muslim nations that coalition forces quit Iraq". He said it was part of the kingdom's efforts to help Iraq regain its sovereignty. He explained that the proposal was not "a conspiracy" hatched in co-ordination with the US, stressing: "If they have a better proposal let them present it. We know our intention and we believe that the proposal is in the interest of the Iraqi people".

The proposal, which has met a cool response so far, was for troops from Pakistan, Malaysia, Algeria, Bangladesh and Morocco to help quell unrest in Iraq. But Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem said his country had no intention of sending troops to Iraq. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi said the proposal would be feasible only if the MNF first withdrew from Iraq, because the danger was that if Arab and Muslim troops went now they would be seen as shoring up US-led troops and therefore part of the occupying force. Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr Al-Qaroobi on Aug. 1 said coalition forces must leave first and that Sanaa would send troops only under a joint UN-Arab League umbrella.

Tawheed Wal Jihad, a Wahhabi group active in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, has rejected the idea of a Muslim force and has threatened to retaliate against contributors. This group, led by Jordanian militant known as Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, was blamed for the Aug. 1 bombing of Christian churches in Baghdad and Musul, which killed about a dozen people, and most earlier bombings including one in Baquba which killed 70 people. About 700 people were killed in Iraq during July alone.

It was the Arab League boss Moussa who convinced Prince Faisal and other Saudi leaders that they should modify their call for a Muslim force and put a prior withdrawal of the US-led MNF from Iraq as a primary condition. Moussa, a former foreign minister of Egypt, is an Arab nationalist like UN mediator Lakhdar Ibrahimi, and has been the subject of US criticism.