CAIRO,
February 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Arab countries on
Wednesday, February 19, ruled out a special summit this month on the
Iraq crisis because of "differences", even with time running
out before threatened U.S. military action.
An
official of the 22-member Arab League told Agence France-Presse (AFP)
that the region's leaders will only hold their annual summit in March.
"An
extraordinary summit on Iraq will not take place because of Arab
differences. Arab states are in consultation on the date and place for
an ordinary Arab summit in March," the official said, on condition
of anonymity.
He
said it would probably be held in Cairo "during the month of March,
not at the start of the month".
Arab
League chief Amr Mussa said earlier that Arab countries were agreed only
that a summit would take place in March, implying that plans to bring it
forward to February had been scotched.
"Discussions
are underway to fix the date and the place of the summit," said the
head of the Cairo-based organization, reflecting chronic divisions in
the Arab world on the best policy to adopt on the Iraq question.
Mussa
said events had made a summit necessary, adding that a single meeting
would be held, with Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the only
two items on the agenda.
Arab
League chair Lebanon earlier Wednesday said an early special Arab summit
on Iraq called for by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was being ruled
out because of time constraints.
"The
summit will not take place this month. Efforts by a tripartite committee
composed of Lebanon, Egypt and ... Mussa have not succeeded," a
well-placed foreign ministry source said.
The
source pointed out that a Franco-African summit, gathering a number of
Arab states including Egypt, is taking place in Paris on Thursday and
Friday, February 20, 21, a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement is
scheduled for February 24 and 25, and a special summit of the Islamic
Conference Organization on Iraq is planned for Doha on March 4 and 5.
The
annual Arab summit is also to be held in March 2003.
Egypt's
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters Monday, February 17, that
Arab states had reached "a consensus" on holding an emergency
summit on February 28 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh,
adding that a final date would be announced in "the next 48
hours."
He
dismissed reports that some of the League's members had objected to
convening a special summit on Iraq during the Arab foreign ministers'
meetings in Cairo last Saturday and Sunday.
The
foreign ministers convened to discuss preparations for the summit but no
final date for it was announced in their final communique.
Maher
said Mussa had proposed that the emergency summit be followed
immediately by the ordinary summit that was originally planned to be
held in Bahrain in March.
According
to Arab diplomats, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen and Sudan have all
expressed fears that the special summit would be used by Washington's
Arab allies to cover an attack on Iraq.
No
Need To Hold An Emergency Arab Summit: Al-Faisal
And
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in remarks published
in the Okaz daily Wednesday: "There is no need to hold an
emergency summit after the extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign
ministers.
"Holding
a summit without first issuing a resolution on the Iraq crisis agreed
unanimously by Arab countries may worsen the situation," he said.
"It's
enough to have held the preliminary (foreign ministers') meeting now and
to focus on making the regular summit in March a successful meeting,
while continuing to urge Iraq to cooperate more with UN
inspectors," he said.
