Iraq strongly deplores the postponement of the summit

Member of the Iraqi Interim Governing Council, Muwafaq al-Rbei, yesterday expressed "strong regret" over Tunisia's decision to postpone the Arab summit.

Al-Rubei said " we regret this postponement strongly because the Arab nation is going through a grave and critical phase and we were in need of convening an Arab summit and postponement is not in the interests of the Arab nation." He continued that the Interim Council was pinning great hopes on this summit to which he will be sending "a high ranking delegation carrying detailed issues on the political process, the elections and authority transfer. We hoped we would notify the Arab leaders about it."

It was expected that the current President of the council, Muhammad Baher al-Oloum, will lead his country's delegation to the summit.

The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zeibari, told the Saudi daily Okaz on Saturday that the Arabs have exaggerated fears over the American reforms plans on the Middle East.