Gulf Arab foreign ministers stopped short on Monday of formally backing a call on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to go into exile in order to avert war. Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council - grouping the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain - agreed at a meeting in Doha that the UAE proposal needed wider discussion among Arab countries.
The GCC said in a statement on Monday: "The Council sees the necessity of presenting the initiative for discussion and evaluation at the Arab level." "We think it needs to be discussed further in the Arab League," said Qatar Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani.
"All the GCC agreed in principle that this is a very important initiative. There are no differences within the GCC about the UAE initiative." He added: "Personally I think there is a very slim chance that this war can be avoided."
GCC ministers were still deliberating whether to launch the exile idea yet again at a special summit meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference scheduled to take place in Qatar on Wednesday, officials said, according to Reuters. Its prospects of success in that forum also appeared slim.
UAE Foreign Minister Rashid Abdullah al-Nuaimi told reporters on the eve of Monday's talks that "the Arab summit did not understand the proposal, which aims to avoid a catastrophic war on Iraq and the whole region. This is a solution to avoid a disaster, which would be the destruction of Iraq," he said. It "should not be seen as interference", he added. (Albawaba.com)
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