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Jordan Prepares For Arab Summit
By Tareq Ayyoub
AMMAN, March 14 (IslamOnline) - Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Saeed Sahaf is expected to meet with King Abdullah next Friday where the Iraqi official is expected to hand a letter from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein concerning the upcoming Arab summit, a government official said Wednesday.
Information Minister Taleb Rifai said the letter would focus on the Kuwaiti-Iraqi impasse, which the previous Arab summit failed to solve.
"Arab efforts are directed to end differences between Iraq and Kuwait and we hope that we can do something in that direction," the minister told reporters.
Rifai said that Kuwait's Foreign Minister, Sabah Al Jaber Al Sabah, will visit Jordan next week and is scheduled to meet with Abdullah.
Kuwait and Iraq are at odds since the 1990-91 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and lasting animosity between the two hampered efforts to unify Arab ranks at the last summit.
While Iraq insists on the lifting of nearly 11 years of sanctions, Kuwait says that releasing over 600 Kuwaiti prisoners, allegedly held by Iraq, is a must before Arabs take any action towards lifting the embargo.
Rifai said that a meeting of Arab League Foreign Ministers in Cairo, which ended on Monday, asked Jordan, Egypt and Qatar to draft a resolution on Iraq that will be submitted to the March 27th Arab Summit.
A government official said that Jordan does not expect the Arab summit to close the Iraqi file.
"We hope to build on the position that was achieved during the Organization of Islamic Conference in Doha in December," the official, who asked not to be named, was quoted by the English daily, the Jordan Times, as saying.
"The [OIC] summit adopted unusual reconciliatory language by talking of the situation between Iraq and Kuwait instead of the Iraqi aggression on Kuwait."
"We have three members, the Arab summit is the first in a series of regular Arab summit[s] that will be held every year, and we can engage in gradual consensus building and compromise."
During their meeting in Cairo, Arab foreign ministers set the rest of the summit agenda, leaving the issue of Iraq's relations with Kuwait and the question of lifting U.N. sanctions on Iraq.
Rifai said the upcoming summit would tackle three major issues: the political and economic and those relating to reactivating Arab organization which would help in strengthening cooperation among Arab states.
The minister said that among the political issues are the Palestinians, the peace process, the Iraqi file, and other issues pertaining to supporting Lebanon, Sudan and Libya.
The economic file will include the establishment of a Free Trade Agreement grouping Arab states, an electric network which would include six Arab states in addition to Turkey, and installing the infrastructure to launch joint business investment among Middle East countries, Rifai said.
The minister said that the multi-million gas project, which groups Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon, is also among the economic issues the summit will discuss. Rifai said that a meeting would be held in Damascus Thursday, which would be attended by the prime ministers of the four countries, to come up with a plan to launch the project.
Jordan and Lebanon are at odds regarding the way this project, which will cost over $600 million, will be implemented
While Jordan advocates a land route, Lebanon said that it believes a maritime route is better for the four countries.
Rifai said that Abdullah is expected to leave for the United Arab Emirates to meet with President Sheikh Zayid Bin Al Hayan to invite him for the upcoming visit.
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