Moussa stresses importance of holding IGAD summit

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa stressed the importance of holding the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit with African presidents members of the organization attending.

Moussa said IGAD meetings were of a political nature that was not known before in the organisation's activities.

In an interview with Cairo Radio early Friday, Moussa highlighted the importance of discussing the political initiatives to settle the problems of Sudan and Somalia, in addition to the efforts exerted by IGAD partners; Egypt and the US as well as other European countries.

IGAD is holding its 9th round of meetings under the presidency of Sudan, Moussa added, noting that IGAD is an organization for regional economic cooperation and not a political one.

He noted that besides the joint ventures that would be probed during the meetings, the summiteers will tackle on the fringe of their meetings the causes of the Sudanese south and the Somali crisis.

As regards the Sudanese problem, Moussa pointed out that IGAD initiative is an old one, but it did not bear fruit, and therefore other initiatives were floated such as the Egyptian Libyan initiative on Sudan.

The Arab League chief noted that there are other efforts exerted by some European countries and Egypt from the Arab side.

It is appropriate in light of the convocation of IGAD summit at the level of presidents and with the presence of foreign ministers that IGAD should pore over the political side that occupies the conferees in their side talks.

Moussa said the Arab League decided to attend the summit, after holding contacts with a number of IGAD members .

This matter could lead to coordinating stances as regards other economic projects that should be set up in the Horn of Africa region and other Arab countries in the same way as in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) gathering, according to Moussa.

He said the political dealing in COMESA, which is wider in scale, is much less than the political dealing within the context of IGAD.