Visiting Arab League chief praises Iraq's progress

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Iraqi government is on the right track in its efforts to promote national reconciliation, the head of the Arab League said Tuesday, on his first visit to Iraq in more than three years. The organization's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, said the government's policies have led to more stability. "I feel that there is a big difference in the country," Moussa said at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "Hope has emerged for a prosperous future." Moussa arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first visit since Oct. 2005. At the time, an Arab League convoy doing advance work for the visit was hit by gunfire but nobody was hurt. Mostly Sunni Arab nations have begun to engage the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi government, after shunning it for years to avoid implying approval of the 2003 US-led invasion.