Posted on 09/05/2003 6:01:25 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Arab League Says Iraq Belongs in Group
By NICOLE WINFIELD .c The Associated Press
CERNOBBIO, Italy (AP) - The Arab League's secretary general said Friday that Iraq belonged in the 22-member bloc, hinting that that it might be ready to accept U.S.-backed interim Governing Council as Iraq's legitimate government.
Amr Moussa said the issue of whether to accept the council and let it participate in future meetings would be discussed before the next Arab League meeting begins Tuesday in Cairo.
``I leave that to the council of ministers, but Iraq is an Arab country, a member state of the Arab League and its membership has not been abolished or suspended,'' Moussa said on the sidelines of a conference on Lake Como.
Iraq's seat on the 22-member council has remained empty since Saddam Hussein's ouster, as the Arab League has refused to recognize the governing council - dismissed by many in Iraq and across the Arab world as a puppet of U.S. and British occupiers.
Members of Iraq's Governing Council said Friday they were confident the Arab League would accept them.
``We will be there,'' said Adnan Pachachi, a member of the council's presidential committee, who also attended the Lake Como conference which draws world leaders and corporate executives to a three-day workshop on economics and politics.
Another member of the Governing Council, Iyad Allawi, said consensus was emerging among Arab countries to accept the Governing Council as the legitimate representation of Iraq.
Arab countries were divided over the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein and are split over how to treat the council that is working with Iraq's U.S.-led coalition occupying the Arab country in the aftermath.
Allawi said he and other members of the council had met with officials from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan in recent weeks ``and now all are really pushing to accept Iraq back to play its role in the Arab League and attend the meeting on the ninth of September.''
He said Syria was ``not that open'' to the idea that he thought Damascus would come around.
``There are some obstacles by some Arab countries. But we will overcome this,'' he said.
``We hope that we will be able to send a delegation, maybe headed by the newly appointed minister of foreign affairs in Iraq, to attend the Arab League ministerial meeting on the ninth of September,'' he said. ``The consensus is almost there now.''
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