AL council calls for including Arab experts in the inspection teams
Regional-Iraq, Politics, 11/11/2002

In conclusion of a meeting which was held in Cairo, the Arab ministerial council called for cooperation between the UN and Iraq and asked the UN inspectors not "to perform any provocative act," suggesting including Arab experts in the UN inspection teams.

Meantime, the Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara said that Syria had received "written assurances" from Washington that UN resolution 1441 which was issued on Friday will not be used as a pretext to attack Iraq.

The statement which was adopted unanimously, including Iraq, said that the Arab League (AL) council "after studying developments concerning the Iraqi issue in light of UN resolution 1441 issued by the UN Security Council, welcomes what was stated in it -- in that the UN security council is the reference which is in charge of evaluating the performance of the inspectors." The statement added that the AL council welcomes "Iraq's acceptance of the return back of UN inspectors unconditionally and calls for continuing cooperation between the UN and Iraq in order to solve all pending issues peacefully in order to lift the sanctions ultimately from Iraq and end the sanctions imposed on it and ending the sufferings of the Iraqi people."

The statement continued that the AL council calls on the "UN inspection teams to practice their missions professionally and neutrally and not to carry out any provocative acts."

Implicitly, the AL expressed fear of demolishing the assurances given to Syria; the only Arab state, member of the UN security council which voted for the UN resolution 1441.

The AL council called on the UN Security Council permanent member states which gave assurances to Syria, the only Arab state member at the UN security council, "to abide by what it proposed in that the said resolution does not constitute a pretext for launching war against Iraq, nor spontaneously resort to the military action." The statement called on the "UN security council as part of what it had done to eliminate the mass destruction weapons in Iraq, to force Israel to abide by the implementation of international legitimacy resolutions and to implement article 14 of the UN resolution no. 687 of 1991 on removing from the Middle East mass destruction weapons and especially eliminating the Israeli mass destruction weapons.

Previous Stories:
  Moussa: The Arabs have a say about matter such as attacking Iraq   (10/15/2002)
  Arab, European intelligence meet on implications of a war against Iraq   (10/10/2002)
  Moussa Welcomes Agreement Between Iraq, U.N. Committee   (10/4/2002)

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