Assafir: Lebanese FM: the Arab committee will not visit Iraq on Thursday

The Lebanese minister of expatriates and foreign affairs yesterday evening denied in a statement to the Lebanese daily Assafir issued today that the Arab Ministerial committee which has returned recently from New York has decided to visit Baghdad on Thursday.

Earlier, Minister Hammoud announced that consultations are still continuous with his counterparts in the Arab- six member committee to agree on a final date for the visit of the committee to Baghdad to meet with the Iraqi government and hold consultation in the framework of the Sharm esh Sheikh summit resolutions for withstanding the grave challenges imposed on Iraq and the threats against the Arab states, according to the second part of article 7th of the summit's resolution concerning the threats against Iraq.

However, the secretary general of the Arab League Amr Moussa has announced that the "committee will head on Thursday for Bahrain to convene a meeting in order to study the situation before heading for Baghdad to hold talks with the Iraqi government on the current situation." Replying to a question on what was stated by the French foreign minister and the director general of the International agency for atomic energy on the committee's informing the Iraqi leadership on the need to take "dramatic measures," he said: "we have listened to the two men on that issue but we were not asked to convey this message to the Iraqi leadership." Moussa said that "the danger of war is still valid greatly especially in this grave period of time. A matter which makes the mission of the commission as urgent and precise." Two days earlier, the Arab League received a message from the Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri al-Huseithi stressed "Iraq's welcome" of the visit of the committee which includes Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Tunisia and the AL chief.