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Mussa: I’m Visiting Iraq At A Critical Time
BAGHDAD, Jan 19 (News Agencies) – Iraq pressed Saturday for Arab solidarity as the Arab League secretary general met with President Saddam Hussein.
Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said Saddam would present Amr Mussa with his ideas to improve relations ahead of the Arab summit scheduled to take place in Beirut in March, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The meeting with the Iraqi leader was underway Saturday afternoon, League sources said.
Iraq's proposals were "to establish good inter-Arab relations" Aziz told reporters after his own talks overnight with the secretary general.
"Iraq is motivated by a sincere wish for reconciliation and inter-Arab solidarity," he said.
"It is time to act to have better relations between Arab countries to defend their rights and the rights of the Palestinian people ... Arab countries should not be spectators" to developments in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Aziz said.
The 22 Arab League members are still struggling to cope with the aftermath of the 1990-1991 Gulf war which divided the region in pro and anti-Iraqi camps.
However Baghdad has been taking an increasingly conciliatory line with Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in recent weeks, notably offering to receive a Kuwaiti delegation for talks about Kuwaitis still reported missing after the Gulf War.
"We are ready to welcome a Kuwaiti delegation in Iraq to visit prisons where Kuwaitis may be held," said Uday el-Taie, information director at the Information Ministry.
Riyadh and Kuwait have not restored diplomatic relations with Baghdad since the war.
Kuwait says some 600 Kuwaitis are missing or held prisoners of war following Iraq's invasion. Iraq denies this and demands in return information about 1,142 missing Iraqis.
Aziz voiced hope that "a positive step" would be taken by Baghdad and Kuwait at the Arab summit to be held in March in Beirut.
Prospects for improving Arab solidarity dominated talks between Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and Mussa on Friday night, an official source said Saturday.
"The Arab situation and the means of restoring Arab solidarity to confront the challenges and dangers facing the Arab nation," were at the center of the talks, the source said.
Mussa also called for improved Arab relations but he warned against any military strikes on Iraq or other Arab countries, upon arriving here Friday on the first official visit to Iraq by a head of the pan-Arab body since 1990.
"There is an Arab consensus on opposing any strike against any Arab country," Mussa said, following U.S. President George W. Bush's advice to Saddam two days before that the White House would "deal with him at the appropriate time" unless U.N. weapons inspectors were allowed back into Iraq.
"The Arab League, the Arab Ministerial Council and the Arab summit, all were very clear in (upholding) the security, safety and territorial integrity of all Arab countries, including Iraq," he said at the airport when asked about the possibility of a U.S. military offensive against Iraq.
Mussa said he would discuss various aspects of the situation in Iraq with officials here, including President Saddam Hussein, during his 24-hour visit.
"I am visiting Iraq at a critical time for the Arab world and the Middle East region," Mussa said.
"The talks I will hold here are important in the context of reviving Arab solidarity," he added.
Mussa's trip comes amid renewed pressure from the United States on Iraq, which is widely seen as a potential target of a future phase of Washington's "war on terror" begun in Afghanistan last October.
U.S. President George W. Bush warned Saddam again on Wednesday that he would "deal with him at the appropriate time" unless U.N. weapons inspectors were allowed back into Iraq.
Mussa's predecessor Esmat Abdel Meguid was the last Arab League head to visit Baghdad, in February 1998, but he went as an envoy of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, bearing a message to Saddam.
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