UAE president confers with French foreign minister

President of the United Arab Emirates UAE Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan al-Nahyan met today in Abu Dhabi with the French Foreign Minister Hubert Vederine.

The UAE news agency said that the two sides discussed the situation in the Gulf region and the question of the three UAE islands which are under disputes with Iran since 1971. The UAE news agency added that Vedrine stressed his country's stand to the UAE in calling upon Iran to settle the disputes amicably.

The UAE President also discussed with Vederine the French initiative to solve the Iraqi crisis by diplomatic means. AFP quoted French diplomatic sources in Abu Dhabi as saying that the daily British and US raids on Iraq "do not give the chance towards a peaceful solution for the Iraqi crisis." The UAE has repeatedly condemned resorting to power against Iraq. Worthy mentioning that France had launched in January this year an initiative to settle the Iraqi crisis. The initiative aims to lift the embargo imposed on Iraq and to draw a system for monitoring the Iraqi armament and its financial revenues and how it is spent.