Iraq: Deeply divided over policy towards Iraq, Arab foreign ministers yesterday postponed until next month on Monday a meeting which had been scheduled set to be held in Cairo here this week.
The Arab League secretary general, Mr Esmat Abdel Meguid, said the meeting of Arab foreign ministers scheduled to be held here on Wednesday had been delayed until January 24th "at the request of the countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC)."
However, one GCC member came out in favour of going ahead with the meeting asplanned. The United Arab Emirates "supported the Yemeni request to convene an Arab summit and did not ask for the ministerial meeting to be delayed," an Emirati foreign ministry official told the official WAM news agency. Meanwhilediplomats in Riyadh said the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, made a secret visit to Cairo to explain his government's reservations to on the Arab summit.
The diplomats said Saudi Arabia was concerned such a summit would degenerate into conflict or end with statements of support for President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Prince Faisal discussed the issue with President Hosni Mubarak and the Foreign Minister, Mr Amr Mussa, during a visit lasting several hours on Sunday, said the sources. The UAE news agency also said that GCC foreign ministers are to meet in Riyadh on Tuesday. "The meeting aims to consider the current situation in the Arab world, notably the holding of an Arab summit," WAM said.
The UAE Foreign Minister, Mr Rashid Abdallah, will chair the session of the six GCC members - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Emirates.
Arab foreign ministers had been summoned to Cairo at Yemen's request to consider holding an Arab summit to discuss the situation in Iraq following the four days of US-British air strikes.
The Arab League's highest body is the council of foreign ministers. It does not have the power itself to convene summits.
The last summit, which focused on relations with Israel, was held in Cairo here in June 1996, without the participation of Iraq, which was not invited. It is the only one to have been held since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Saudi Arabia is concerned lest a summit call for a lifting of UN sanctions on Iraq - an issue Riyadh believes should be handled by the United Nations. "Saudi Arabia and Kuwait believe the situation in Iraq is linked to the application by this country of all international resolutions," said an Arab diplomat.
President Mubarak himself launched a strong attack on Baghdad on Sunday, saying Egypt's opposition to US and British air strikes should not be mistaken for support for the Iraqi government, which, he said, was "at the root of all theproblems".
"We opposed the air attack Britain and the United States launched against Iraq from the start because in the final reckoning it's the people of Iraq who pay the price," he said in an interview for yesterday's Monday's edition of thegovernment daily Al-Gumhuriya.
The United Nations relief workers in Iraq will resume full operations in "very early January," a spokesman said yesterday.
The Iraqi Satellite Channel was back on the air yesterday after a 12-day interruption in its broadcasts because of the US-British air strikes on Iraq. The satellite station, which was set up July 17th, and Iraq's Al-Shebab, or Youth, TV stopped broadcasting on December 16th, the first day of Operation Desert Fox.