Maher: Calling off Arab committee's visit to Baghdad inappropriate
Egypt-Iraq, Politics, 3/15/2003

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher said on Thursday that the postponing of a visit by the ministerial committee formed by the latest Arab summit in Sharm El-Sheikh was not an appropriate decision.

"The committee had already received an official invitation from the Iraqi government but when certain members on the committee hesitated, Baghdad called off the mission indefinitely," said Maher in statements to reporters.

"The core of the issue was that certain countries, for reasons we do not understand, demanded a delay of the visit," said Maher.

Maher said that the committee's task was quite clear and commensurate with the summit's resolutions. "But the attempts of certain sides to imagine something that is not there at all, as an excuse to delay the visit, prompted this step for which we are not responsible," added Maher.

He denied raising the issue of Saddam Hussein's stepping down during meetings with officials from some European countries.

However, said Maher, the summit's resolutions are binding and cannot be scrapped under any circumstance.

So far there is no next step in sight, said Maher. Our major concern is to reach a peaceful settlement, he added.

Egyptian Foreign Ahmad Maher received separately Thursday French and Kuwaiti Ambassadors to Egypt Jean Claude Cousseran and Ahmad Khaled Al-Kulib, respectively.

Emerging from the meeting, Cousseran said talks tackled the French stance on the Iraq crisis, noting that France spurned the new British-proposed amendments to the contemplated UN draft resolution on Iraq sponsored by Washington, London and Madrid.

For his part, Kulib said that he handed Maher a message from Kuwaiti Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on the burning Arab issues.

The situation (in the region) is very delicate, said the Kuwaiti ambassador, adding that Egypt and Kuwait were doing everything in their power to spare the region the scourge of war.

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