IRAQI NEIGHBOURS TO MEET IN RIYADH ON FRIDAY
RIYADH, 15 Apr. (IPS) As General Gay Garner, the officer Washington appointed as the ruler of Iraq entered the stage by presiding Tuesday over the first meeting of some major Iraqi groups and personalities opposed to the now defunct regime of Saddam Hoseyn, Saudi Arabi invited the foreign ministers of countries neighbouring Iraq to meet here on Friday to review the fallout of the war, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced.
The "Emergency Regional Conference" was called by
Saudi Arabia on instructions from King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdollah, in charge
of the nation’s affairs, the English-language "Arab News" quoted
Prince Saud as having said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press
Agency.
"The conference comes in response to the current circumstances and developments in Iraq, which affect the Iraqi people in particular, and the repercussions on the countries of the region in general" the Prince said.
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Syria and Iran have borders with Iraq.
Kuwait, which provided a launch pad for US troops heading to Baghdad, also borders Iraq, but it is not clear if it will come to the Riyadh meeting or not.
A similar conference, called by Egypt and Turkey, was held last January in Istanbul in a bid to prevent the US-led war on Iraq.
Prince Saud made the announcement after a surprise visit to Damascus on Sunday, following increasing American threats and warning to Syria, a close ally of the Saudi Kingdom and particularly to the Crown Prince Abdollah.
During his impromptu visit to Damascus, Prince Saud discussed with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad repeated American accusations that Syria possesses weapons of mass destruction and has allowed senior Iraqi leaders to escape through its territory or has sheltered some of them.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also reiterated the accusations, saying his secret services had information about top Iraqi officials having fled to Syria, but he did not presented any document.
Sharon called on Washington to increase pressures over President Asad to stop its support for the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation in the one hand and booting out of Syria all radical Palestinian organisations that are present in that country.
But Jose Maria Asnar, the Spanish Prime Minister, who is the junior partner of the United States and Britain in the war against Iraq assured Tuesday that America does not intend to attack Syria.
Washington threats against Damascus, menaced with economic and diplomatic sanctions, have seriously angered Arab nations.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa dismissed the allegations of Syrian support for Saddam Hoseyn’s regime and said he had been "astonished and astounded" by the allegations.
Following the fall of Baghdad, Saudi Arabia has been active diplomatically as a new situation emerges in the Gulf, Arab News observed.
Foreign Ministers of the six-members (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council also met in the Saudi Capital on Monday, discussing the aftermath of the war.
"French Foreign Affairs Minister Dominique de Villepin held talks with his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh on Sunday and both agreed that the return of Iraq to Iraqi control must remain a priority",.
De Villepin held similar talks in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut where he called for the return of UN arms inspectors to Iraq and the lifting of sanctions against Baghdad.
Visiting the region on the heels of Mr. De Villepin, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived in Riyadh on Monday, coming from Damascus.
Prince Saud last week urged the United States to allow the Iraqi people to choose their own government and their own future and to end the occupation quickly. ENDS IRAQ NEIGHBOURS MEETING 15403