ara News Feb 28, 2003 www.aljazeerah.info

Al-Jazeerah, News

Hopes of adopting a powerful joint Arab stance to reject war on Iraq were revived here yesterday with Arab foreign ministers stressing that all differences should be put aside and instead focus efforts on finding a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Amr Moussa, Arab League Secretary General, said that Arab foreign ministers held "good and fruitful meetings" here yesterday and an agenda will be finalised and presented to Arab leaders in their summit here tomorrow.

Moussa described as "baseless" reports that the U.S. is pressuring Arab countries to adopt a stance calling for supporting its war plans on Iraq.

"These are baseless reports and there is no pressure whatsoever from any party on us to adopt certain stand. The Arab Summit was supposed to have been held to discuss the Iraqi crisis, and here we are going to hold it according to the Arab League Charter which says that the annual summit should be held in March," Moussa told reporters following the first session of the Arab foreign ministers meeting held at the Sheraton hotel to prepare the agenda for the Arab Summit.

"The whole world is looking at Sharm Al Sheikh now and asking what Arabs are going to say and do regarding this serious crisis. We should stand up to our responsibility as Arabs and come up with a unified stance," Rashid Abdullah Al Nuaimi, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, told Gulf News while heading to the second session of the preparation meeting of the Arab foreign ministers.

Ahmed Maher, Egyptian Foreign Minister, said that "we are going to discuss the Iraqi crisis in view of our understanding of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441 which should be respected by all countries in the world."

Maher also denied that there is any sort of foreign interference in the Arab decision-making, particularly the stand towards rejecting war on Iraq. "No foreign pressure will affect Arab leaders who have already adopted a stand to reject war on any Arab state. Arab countries should work till the last minute to avoid war on Iraq," said Maher.

Mohammed Mahdi Saleh, Iraqi Minister for Foreign Trade, who took part in the discussions along with Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, told Gulf News that "taking part in the summit was a wise Iraqi decision that is meant to avoid any drift in the Arab stance regarding a very serious issue like the Iraqi crisis."

Saleh expected Arab leaders to adopt a strong unified stance to "call for rejecting any war against my country." He said that there had been strong indications that such stance would be adopted unanimously by tomorrow's summit.

Amr Moussa confirmed that the summit would be held with the participation of all Arab countries.

"Arab leaders will meet here on Saturday to take a clear position to reject war, a similar decision had been taken by Beirut Arab League Summit in March last year.

"It is extremely important for Arabs to take such political stance since others have already adopted stances rejecting war, including the EU, the Non-Alignment Movement, and other groups," said Moussa.

Moussa stressed the Iraqi crisis should be solved peacefully and the UN weapons inspectors should be given enough time to do their job in Iraq.

"Arabs should add their unified voice to those voices calling for giving inspectors sufficient time and report to the Security Council on whether or not Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," said Moussa.

Moussa stressed the decisions of the Arab League should be respected by all member states and efforts are being made now to implement the resolutions taken in last year's summit in Beirut.

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