Has the Arab League taken an interest in the plight of displaced Iraqis?
Have any of its members set up refugee camps, as Egypt, the most populous Arab state, did after the wars between Israel and Arab nations over Palestine? Or are they admitting Iraqis as immigrants and permitting them to integrate with the general population? B. T. Mendelsohn Most Iraqi refugees I spoke with have found the reception from their Arab neighbors rather chilly. Egypt, Jordan, and United Arab Emirates have largely stopped issuing residence visas and are even forcing some Iraqis to return home. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are pretty much closed to Iraqis. Syria has been more hospitable, following the Baathist ideology of Arab brotherhood, but even Syria has made it difficult for Iraqis to work, and its open-door policy has begun to close. There is no country in the region that wants to absorb Iraqis in a long-term resettlement. As I wrote in the piece, there is a sense among some of Iraq’s neighbors that Iraqis, by allowing the Americans to overthrow Saddam and install a Shiite-maj
