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Arab Foreign Ministers Meeting Opens
by Tareq Ayyoub
AMMAN, March 24 (IslamOnline) - Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib on Saturday said that concessions should be made by Arab countries to reach a consensus among them at the March 27th Arab summit.
Khatib, who was addressing the opening session of the Arab Foreign ministers summit, was alluding to reported differences regarding the lifting of U.N. sanctions against Iraq.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are apparently rejecting any Arab move to ease or lift the 11-year sanctions amid counter calls from countries like Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Palestine and others.
"We should not concentrate on the differences and try to focus on the issues that will ensure our agreement," the minister said.
"We should do our best to reactivate the joint Arab efforts based on the mutual interests of Arab countries," Khatib told his colleagues.
The foreign ministers were scheduled to discuss the "Iraq-Kuwait situation" during a second closed-door session Saturday expected to witness several arguments.
The Arab League, authorized Jordan, Qatar and Egypt during a meeting in Cairo earlier this month, to come up with a proposal to resolve the Kuwait-Iraq feud.
Many Arab countries are advocating the lifting of U.S.-spearheaded sanctions against Iraq, while only Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are putting conditions against any move in that direction.
"Arab countries are against the continuation of the sanctions and we believe that this embargo should come to an end," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman told reporters ahead of the foreign ministers meeting.
"Our afternoon session will be devoted to finding a consensus on Iraq," the Arab foreign minister, who declined to be identified, told the Agence France Presse
"We will hear the views of Arab Gulf ministers and the Iraqi delegate, and we will strive to reach a compromise between the two positions," the official said.
The official stressed that Iraq was the main bone of contention facing the two-day meeting, which will finalize the agenda submitted to the summit Tuesday and Wednesday.
"The only problem facing us is Iraq," the official said.
But he admitted it would be "less serious to have one country [Iraq] rejecting consensus than six," in reference to the six Arab Gulf monarchies which include Baghdad's arch rivals Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday decided to send a low profile delegation to the summit, headed by Defense Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, instead of Crown Prince Abdullah, apparently in protest of giving the Iraqi file "more space in the summit."
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are also opposing an Iraqi demand to allocate one billion Euros from Iraqi oil-for-food contract revenues to support the Palestinian people.
In addition to the Iraq-Kuwait issue, the agenda of the Arab foreign ministers' meeting includes political, economic and social issues.
Among the political issues that top the agenda are the Arab-Israeli conflict, which will handle among other things, a Syrian and Palestinian request to revive the Arab boycott on Israel.
The political agenda will also include the 28-year Iranian occupation of the United Arab Emirates, a demand to lift sanctions on Libya and Sudan, and proposals for an Arab-African meeting.
Economic issues include ways to revive joint Arab economic efforts and a proposal to hold an economic conference in Cairo in November.
Other agenda items include the Arab Child Conviction and the election of a new Secretary General to the Arab League, where Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mousa is expected to win the support from Arab countries for his election.
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