Posted on 11/01/2003 4:09:58 PM PST by TexKat
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Iraq's neighbors meeting in Damascus on Saturday formally renewed their invitation to Iraq to join the security talks, but the Iraqi foreign minister insisted the invitation had come too late for him to attend.
The foreign ministers' meeting, focusing on postwar regional stability and border security, comes amid mounting U.S. concern that foreign guerrillas entering Iraq across porous borders are behind a wave of deadly attacks inside Iraq.
"It is too little, too late," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters. "It has come so late that it will be very difficult for me to get to the talks in Damascus tomorrow, given the logistical problems and the attitude of the Syrian government."
Late on Friday Syria offered a last-minute invitation to Zebari to attend the talks but he refused saying he had not received a proper invitation.
That dispute overshadowed the talks which opened on Saturday between the six countries bordering Iraq plus Egypt, and the seven ministers issued a second, formal invitation at the end of the day.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah said the talks would only happen if Iraq was represented.
"Our position is clear that the official meeting will not take place unless Iraq attends," he said in remarks carried by the official Kuwaiti news agency KUNA.
Concern about the impact of Iraq's political future on their own security has driven Middle East nations to hold periodic meetings, despite decades of mutual mistrust and divisions over the U.S.-led war that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
FOREIGN FIGHTERS
Iraq did not attend three previous regional meetings in Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Jordan and Egypt, which does not share a frontier with Iraq, are also taking part in the Damascus discussions.
The meeting, coming as Washington lays increasing blame on foreign fighters for a wave of violence in postwar Iraq, was expected to focus on the need to halt militants entering Iraq.
Washington called on Syria and Iran last week to take action to stop the infiltration of "foreign terrorists" after a string of suicide bombings in Iraq that killed 35 people.
Analysts said the violence, which has seen daily attacks on U.S. troops as well as on embassies, the United Nations and Red Cross, would be the hottest topic in Damascus.
"Iraq's security situation is the most important topic of discussion at the meeting," said Syrian analyst Samir al-Taqi.
"Because if it remains as it is, lacking security, it could be exported to the whole of the surrounding region. That is what frightens the neighboring countries," he said.
Iraqi Foreign Ministry officials blamed Syria's apparent reluctance to invite Zebari on Syrian misgivings about being seen to recognize Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council.
The Arab League faced a similar dilemma in September, when Zebari was allowed to take Iraq's vacant seat at a ministerial meeting after hours of deliberation.
The officials said Damascus had also been stung by accusations from the Governing Council that many of the foreign militants entering Iraq had come across the border from Syria.
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