The Arab foreign ministers and the Iraqi question
Regional-Iraq, Politics, 3/27/2001

Several Arab foreign ministers on Sunday evening met with their Iraqi counterpart Muhammad saeed al-Sahaf in a last attempt to reach a unanimous stand concerning the Iraqi question before convening the Arab summit due to be held Today and tomorrow in Amman.

An Arab official asked not to be identified said that that the Arab foreign ministers including the foreign minister of the summit's hosting state ( Jordan) have tried to convince Iraq to alleviate its position so as to be able to formulate a decision on the relations between Iraqi and Kuwait.

Before the beginning of the meeting al-Sahaf said that no agreement was reached on this matter, noting: " we are working to find out how we will reach a proper result but so far no formula has been reached."

The Arab foreign ministers decided to separate the decision expected on the Iraqi- Kuwaiti status from other issues which will be included in the final statement of the summit.

In this respect, the Sudanese foreign minister Muhammad Othman Ismael said that the efforts exerted at the meantime aims at concluding a draft resolution that can be put in a special supplement outside the final summit of the summit.

Other Arab foreign ministers expected that the decision on Iraq will be shortened and to be very general.

Another Arab foreign minister who asked not to be identified said that the decision on Iraq will remain secret until it will be submitted to the Arab leaders, noting that the decision will include the same expression used by the Doha Islamic conference held in Doha on November 2000 which abstained from condemning Iraq and stressed the need of honoring the sovereignty of both Iraq and Kuwait.

He added that the decision will also call for lifting the embargo imposed on Iraq and on the Iraqi people and will underline the importance of preserving the sovereignty and security of the Kuwaiti territories and the right of the Kuwaiti people to live in security.

The Arab minister also did not rule out that the summit will form a follow up committee to help solving this issue if a consensus will not be reached to this effect.

Replying to questions Arab officials in Amman stressed that they do not expect a decision of great importance on Iraq to be taken place. One Arab official said: " Our aim is to bring Iraq and Kuwait closer together and to create the appropriate atmosphere to convene meetings in the future between officials from the two countries to reach a reconciliation."

Previous Stories:
  Intensive efforts to contain inter-Arab differences at Amman summit   (3/26/2001)
  A historical message from Saddam Hussein to the Summit conference   (3/26/2001)
  An Arab official and Amman's summit   (3/24/2001)

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