Maliki sends his regrets

To the intense disappointment of the other Arab leaders, it was announced today that Prime Minister Al-Maliki will be unable to attend the Damascus Arab summit starting the end of this week, because he is busy conducting a military campaign on behalf of his US sponsors against his co-religionists in the Baghdad area. The announcement was made by Ali Dabbagh, government spokesperson, who however described the military campaign a little differently: He said Maliki can't come "because he is busy conducting a security operation in the governate of Basra."

This is particularly disappointing because it was expected that there would be some discussion at the Damascus meeting of Iraqi national reconciliation in connection with the Arab League.