Iraq and the Islamic summit
Iraq-Regional, Politics, 11/16/2000

Political analysts in Doha have stated that Iraq is the great winner, if not the only one, of convening the summit of the Organizations of the Islamic Conference (OIC) as this summit had given Iraq a strong impetus to get out form the isolation imposed on it since 1990.

News reports added that the analysts said that Iraq had made a great achievement manifested in what stated in the summit's final statement on not having any obstacles before air flights from and to Iraq. A matter which was considered by the Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasem Bin Jaber al-Thani as a turning point by the OIC. But the Qatari minister refused to explain whether the OIC members will resume air flight from or to Iraq.

The analysts noted that the most important issue for Iraq is the increasing number of members of the OIC who voted for lifting the sanctions. A matter which was commended on by the Iraqi foreign minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf as the conference did not adopt the previous negative language used by each of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The analysts said that Iraq has succeeded in attaining an early victory at the summit when a Qatari initiative has succeeded in convincing Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the primary financial supporters of the OIC, to adopt the phrase " the 'situation' between Iraq and Kuwait" instead of "the Iraqi aggression against Kuwait" a sentence which was used for a long time.

However, analysts and politicians took part in the summit explained that a rapprochement between Iraq and Kuwait is still too early despite that Qatari foreign minister said that 70 to 80 % of the efforts exerted at the summit aimed at narrowing the disputes between the two Gulf states, noting that the two sides did not meet face to face but they do realize the responsibility they shoulder.

The OIC members assigned the ruler of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khaleifa al-Thani to exert all his " good offices in consultation with Kuwait and Iraq in preparation to solve the dispute among them."

The analysts continued that among the gains Iraq achieved at the summit was the meeting held between the deputy chairman of the council of the Iraqi revolution leadership Izzat Ibrahim and the secretary general of the UN Kofi Annan on the sideline of the OIC summit in order to discuss the efforts aiming at lifting the sanctions imposed on Iraq and agreed to initiate a comprehensive dialogue without any previous conditions.

Previous Stories:
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  Jordanian planes heads for Baghdad   (11/15/2000)
  British plane to Baghdad defies UN sanctions   (11/14/2000)
  Separate meetings with delegations representing Iraq, Kuwait   (11/14/2000)
  Iraq refuses to receive Mauritania's plane delegations representing   (11/3/2000)
  Iraqi minister calls for regular official Arab flights to Baghdad   (10/31/2000)

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