News ira2 Feb 25, 2003 www.aljazeerah.info

Al-Jazeerah, News

Iraq frustrated over perceived lack of support from Arab states
Angry foreign minister lashes out: ‘What will you gain? What will you achieve?’

Compiled by Daily Star staff, 2/25/03

KUALA LUMPUR: Iraq expressed deep disappointment Monday with fellow Arab nations for not giving more unequivocal support in its efforts to avoid a US-led invasion to disarm Baghdad.
Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan said he was especially disappointed that although Arab nations say they oppose a war on Baghdad, some of them such as Qatar have allowed their countries to be a platform for US troops preparing for a possible assault.
Even the Non-Aligned Movement now meeting for a summit in Kuala Lumpur, including some close US allies, has been more outspoken in supporting Iraq than Arab countries, Ramadan said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“The weakest position is the Arab position,” Ramadan said. “There’s no official support from the Arabs.”
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri also expressed Iraqi displeasure with the level of Arab support when he was mobbed by reporters at the Non-Aligned summit. He angrily told them that some Arab newspapers have been even more critical of Iraq than Israeli media.
“You’re so happy and satisfied from this aggression on Iraq,” he said. “What do you gain from an attack on Iraq? What will you achieve?
Ramadan criticized Qatar’s current chairmanship of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and said it should not lead an Islamic conference because of its support for the United States. He called the tiny Gulf state a “center for a growing US military presence that is gathering against Iraq.”
Qatar rejected a request by Malaysia to hold an emergency OIC meeting on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned summit, but relented to holding informal talks instead. About 40 of the organization’s 57 members were expected to attend Wednesday.
Iraq has been trying to delay an Arab League summit set for Saturday until mid-March, or around the time a US-sponsored resolution that may authorize a war on Iraq would go to a vote in the UN Security Council. Ramadan said UN weapons inspectors also would submit another report to the council on March 14, another reason to wait.
“Such a date (for the summit) would be useful for the Arabs to decide what to do, by then they would have ideas on how to carry out their mission properly,” he said.
But the Arab world was in disarray on Monday in its efforts to forge a common line on US-led war threats against Iraq, as Baghdad’s calls to avoid a rapid meeting put regional heavyweights Cairo and Damascus at loggerheads.
Egypt, which sees itself as the leader of the Arab world, has struggled for weeks to persuade other Arab governments of the need to bring forward the Arab League’s annual summit from its scheduled date of March 24 and on Saturday had finally appeared to achieve a consensus on a March 1 meeting.
However, despite a strong appeal from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for other Arab governments to ignore Iraq’s request for a delay, Iraq won the key support of Syria and of its close ally, Lebanon.
“Syria had supported a March 1 date for the summit but is now backing Iraq’s request for a delay … because the whole point of the summit is to help Iraq and sustain it through difficult circumstances,” said the head of its delegation to the Arab League, Youssef Ahmed.
The Syrian diplomat’s comments came just hours after Mubarak’s call keep the summit’s scheduled date.
“It is important that this summit be held right away and that the Arab nation assume its responsibilities by adopting a clear position on the need to avoid military action against Iraq,” Information Minister Safwat al-Sherif quoted the president as saying.
“It would be inconceivable for the European Union, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to hold meetings (on the Iraq crisis) and for the Arab League not to bring its summit forward from its scheduled date (of March 24), which would be too late,” said Mubarak, who is due to host the early summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The new war of words between the key regional states came just two days after Egypt had finally appeared to win over the doubters with the announcement of Lebanon that it was prepared to accept a March 1 meeting.
But on Sunday, Iraq provided Lebanon and Syria with new ammunition for holding out by formally requesting a delay, when one of its key Security Council sympathizers, France, requested a new briefing by UN disarmament chiefs.
“We requested this postponement because from now until March 14 will be a delicate stage and the days and hours will be very important to us,” Sabri told the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera Monday.
“We need every day and every hour to do our work in our relentless efforts to answer the questions raised by UNMOVIC (the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) within the framework of our effective and comprehensive cooperation with the inspection teams,” said the Iraqi foreign minister.
Critics argue that an early meeting risks being hijacked by Arab allies of Britain and the United States to back rapid military action against Iraq. Agencies

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