Maliki: All invitees will attend Baghdad meeting of Iraq neighbors
Iraq-Regional, Politics, 3/6/2007

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Sunday that countries invited to the Baghdad meeting of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran, as well as the US and other UN Security Council permanent members plus Egypt and Bahrain, will attend the regional and international meeting on Iraq.

Maliki said at a press conference that despite ongoing insecurity, all those invited are eager to attend the meeting.

He said the meeting will be held to discuss issues related to Iraq and ways of cooperation to end tension and fight terrorism in Iraq.

He hoped the participants will arrive at regional-regional and regional-international agreements at the Baghdad meeting.

The European Union Monday welcomed a regional conference slated to be held in Baghdad on Saturday in which reportedly the US, Syria and Iran are expected to participate.

"It will be very important to have a conference in which all the neighbors will be there and I also think it is a very positive step forward that the United States is ready to participate in that conference," EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters in Brussels.

"We as the European Union will also be represented there and then we do hope that a reconciliation process can be stronger and deeper than we have been seeing until now," she added.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini said in Tehran Sunday that "we will take part in the meeting if we deem so." Syria, the United States, Britain and France have said they will participate in the March 10 conference in Baghdad.

The state-run Iraqi daily, Al-Sabah, and the independent newspaper, al-Mada, centered on Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad's one-day visit to Saudi Arabia. In separate analyses, the two dailies said that the visit aimed to prepare the grounds for participation in the upcoming regional and international conference in Baghdad.

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