Iraq considers receiving Arab summit delegation on the crisis
Iraq-Regional, Politics, 3/10/2003

The Arab League announced that Baghdad has agreed to receive its ministerial committee stemmed from the recent Arab summit in order to hold talks with the Iraqi officials concerning the current crisis.

The secretary general of the Arab league AL Amre Mousa said he had received a message from the Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri saying that his government welcomes the visit of this committee this week. But he gave no mention to a certain date for this visit.

In press statements on Saturday, Moussa said that the committee will discuss with the Iraqi officials results of its meetings in New York and what they had heard on how to avoid the war against Iraq and its negative consequences on the region.

Mousa described his talks with the UN secretary general Kofi Annan and with both UN weapons inspectors in New York as positive.

Prior to the recent Arab summit, Iraq expressed reservations over sending a delegation to Baghdad for fears of a suggestion that the Iraqi President would be asked to step down. Moussa stressed that the misunderstanding which overwhelmed the mission of the delegation was settled.

In the same context, an official source at the AL said that the delegation will head after Baghdad for Belgium to hold talks with officials in the European Union concerning the crisis in Iraq.

The committee- which is composed in addition to Moussa, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia and Bahrain, met in New York on Saturday the US Secretary of State Colin Powell and informed him about the recent decisions of the Arab summit.

Well-informed sources at the Arab League said that the US President George Bush refused to meet with the committee, adding that the American administration said it considered it useless to make unsuccessful discussions. Worthy mentioning that the Arab leaders stressed at the latest Arab summit total rejection to attacking Iraq and any threat to any Arab state. They stressed the need of settling the Iraqi crisis, peacefully.

Previous Stories:
  Escalated wide world opposition to a war on Iraq   (3/8/2003)
  Arab summit committee heads for the UN concerning Iraq   (3/7/2003)
  World rejection of War On Iraq   (3/7/2003)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search