55 countries to take part in Tehran's Islamic Summit
Regional, Politics, 11/27/1997

The Organization Islamic Conference OIC's 55 member states are to take part in the organization's 8th summit which will be opened on December 9th in Tehran, Iranian official source said on Thursday.

Summit supervisor Sadeq Kharrazi said some 27 state presidents, 3 kings, 4 vice-presidents, 3 crown princes and 7 premiers are taking part in the deliberations of the conference.

Besides the OIC members states, the conference will be attended by the UN Secretary General, the Arab League Secretary General, deputy chairman of Non Aligned Movement NAM, and director generals of UNESCO, Kharrazi said. He added that some 700 journalists will cover the events of the Summit conference.

There have been calls from many Arab states to use this conference as a rebuttle to the MENA conference. MENA the regional economic conference that was promoted heavily by the US was not attendend by many Arab states for including Israel in the conference. The few Arab countries that attended sent low level delegations.

Many, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, regarded the policies of Netanyahu's government as a big obstacle to peace, despite many Arab states' gestures to solve the Mideast problems, and wished not to reward Israel with the prestige that such a conference would have provided.

This Islamic conference will be attended by Iraq, which is currently promoting its relations with Syria to a new level since the Gulf war, where the two countries where on opposite sides. Prior to the Gulf war, Iraq also fought Iran in a bloody war.

There are talks of the desire for an alliance between the two Arab states and Iran, in facing common regional threats, as they share common borders with Turkey that has been trying to enhance its military relations with Israel.

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