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Kuwaiti Group Urges Arab Boycott of Qatar WTO Meeting
KUWAIT, July 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Kuwait-based group opposing normalization with Israeli occupation govenment has called on Arab and Muslim states to boycott a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Qatar in November if Israel takes part, news agencies reported.
"The presence of the Zionist entity at any meeting or conference in an Arab state at this particular time is a stab in the chest of fighters on the Arab land of Palestine," the Public Congress Opposing Normalization with the Zionist Entity (Israel) in the Gulf said in a statement released Sunday.
"We call on leaders in Qatar to review their stance and refuse accepting the Israeli delegation," the Arabic-language statement added.
The non-governmental group was set up last year by some elected members of Kuwait's parliament and other Gulf Arab activists, news agencies reported.
Kuwait, which has no direct links with Israel, has not said if it will attend the WTO meeting.
Earlier on June 13, deputy under-secretary of the Finance, Trade and Economy Ministry in Qatar, Sheikh Bin Faisal Al-Thani, said his country has no authority to choose the nationality of participating countries in the international conference.
"The role of Qatar is just hosting the participating countries and providing needed security in the meeting place but the registration and the approval of the participating countries goes for the Organization's committee", Al-Thani said.
"Let us be honest with ourselves. This is an economic conference and not a political one. The participating countries will be represented by economists and technical specialists. All Arab countries know that the laws of international economic organizations do not mix economic interests with political conflicts", he added.
However, Al-Thani stressed Qatar's supportive stance towards the Palestinians.
In their extraordinary meeting in May, Arab Foreign Ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) criticized Qatar for hosting an Israeli Trade office in Doha while calling for the meeting on the Israeli aggression on the Palestinians.
In its 18th meeting in Mali on June 28, foreign ministers and hundreds of delegates from the 56 OIC nations renewed their call of halting any political contacts and relations with Israel.
In its released communiqué, the OIC countries decided to halt all relations with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their uprising, or intifada.
The communiqué added it will continue the halt as long as the Israeli aggression and blockade on the Palestinian territories continue.
Egypt and other Arab countries have previously boycotted an international economic conference held in Qatar for its hosting an Israeli delegation.
The WTO wants to launch a new round of world trade talks at the ministerial meeting in Qatar slated for November 9-13.
Senior officials from the world's poorest countries began meeting in Tanzania Sunday to forge a common position ahead of the next World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in November, the French news agency AFP reported.
Representatives from 49 least developed countries (LDCs) have arrived in Zanzibar for the two-day meeting starting Sunday, Hassan Mitawi, spokesman of the preparatory committee said.
The WTO's last ministerial meeting in Seattle, Washington 1999, that sparked an anti- globalization movement, ended in failure after member countries were unable to agree on an agenda for new trade talks.
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