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Top-level
delegation to represent Iraq at Arab summit -
CAIRO - A top-level
delegation will represent Iraq at this weekend’s Arab summit, which
Baghdad finally agreed to attend after holding out for it to be postponed,
diplomats said here on Wednesday.
Iraq’s mission to the
22-member Arab League said the delegation would be headed by Ezzat Ibrahim,
number two to President Saddam Hussein on the ruling Revolutionary Command
Council, and include Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Foreign
Minister Naji Sabri. Iraq
backed down Tuesday on its call for the summit to be postponed to March 14
to enable it to concentrate on fending off a war with the United States
after receiving assurances it would not be hijacked by Washington’s and
London’s allies to cover a strike. The
summit is to be held on Saturday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh and chaired by Bahrain. Iraq
was backed by a number of other countries in its call for a postponement,
including hardliner Syria and its ally Lebanon. Arab
League Secretary General Amr Mussa said on Tuesday: “The summit is aimed
at sparing the region the horrors of a war that will have a catastrophic
impact on the region.” He
“stressed the need for Arab solidarity in this delicate phase” and
hailed Baghdad’s decision to attend, a statement said. The
Arab League, Egypt and Gulf Arab states had assured Iraq that a summit
would focus on ways to prevent a strike, and not heed Western calls for
Saddam Hussein to step down. The
summit “will absolutely not cause an embarrassment to Iraq,”
Mussa said Tuesday, adding that “it’s not our business” to
talk of regime change in Baghdad. Egyptian
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, whose country had lobbied hard for the
summit to convene despite the Iraqi request for a delay, said Tuesday the
meeting “will do what it can to spare Iraq military action.” Qatari
Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, whose country hosts key
elements of the US buildup in the Gulf, provided assurances Monday that
the summit would not endorse US-led military action. Mussa
said Tuesday that Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who had originally opposed
an early summit, had also agreed to attend. UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan and representatives of the European Union,
the African Union, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the
Non-Aligned Movement have also agreed to take part, Mussa added. Apart
from Saddam Hussein, who has not attended an Arab summit since 1989, the
aging King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Sayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan of the
United Arab Emirates and Kuwait’s emir Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah
are also expected to stay away. Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat, blockaded by the Israelis in his Ramallah
headquarters, is also a certain absentee. Even if Israel lets him go,
there is no guarantee it will allow him to return. An
Arab foreign ministers’ meeting in Cairo ended in acrimony on February
16 after countries hosting US forces, such as Kuwait and Qatar, came under
criticism. Washington
and London submitted a draft resolution Monday to the UN Security Council
accusing Baghdad of having failed to eliminate its weapons of mass
destruction, and seeking authority to disarm Iraq by force. The
last Arab summit in Beirut in March 2002 saw Iraq move towards healing its
rift with Kuwait, which it invaded in 1990 and occupied for seven months
before being ousted by a US-led coalition including several Arab states.
Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.
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