JEDDAH, 4 March 2003 — The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council yesterday backed a UAE proposal for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s exile to save his people from the horrors of war, but said that the idea should be discussed at the Arab level.
In a statement after a two-day meeting in Doha, GCC foreign ministers did not say they had formally adopted the controversial proposal. However, they commended UAE President Sheikh Zayed for his efforts aimed at preventing the Iraqi people from greater suffering.
“In light of the significance of Sheikh Zayed’s proposal on Iraq...and in order to muster support for it, the (GCC Ministerial) Council views that the initiative must be mooted for discussion at Arab level,” the statement said.
At Saturday’s Arab summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, the UAE had suggested that the Iraqi president go into exile in the face of US and British threats to invade and occupy his country to destroy its alleged weapons of mass destruction.
The idea, and suggestions that Iraq should come under temporary UN and Arab League tutelage once Saddam had stepped down, were given short shrift by other Arab leaders at the summit, who refused even to discuss it.
However, in subsequent individual statements, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain have cautiously lent their support to the proposal.
In his comments to editors published yesterday by the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said Sheikh Zayed “presented those ideas to serve Arabs and to achieve peace, security and stability for the Iraqi people.”
Prince Saud said Sheikh Zayed had a long record of serving the Arab nation.
“Regardless of the opinions it contains, the aim of the initiative is to serve the Iraqi people who suffered a lot,” the prince said in the first public Saudi reaction to the proposal. However, he pointed out that Riyadh did not see the initiative before it was put to the summit.
“No one can doubt Sheikh Zayed’s motives,” he added.
Qatar’s chief diplomat Sheikh Hamad ibn Jassem said the initiative was in the interest of the Arab world and the Iraqi people. The GCC “agreed that this is a very important initiative and we think it needs to be discussed further in the Arab League,” he added.
Kuwait’s Cabinet also backed the proposal, saying it was aimed at “protecting the unity of Iraq and protecting its people from destruction, and avoiding destabilization of the region.”
According to the UAE news agency WAM, King Hamad of Bahrain has also approved Sheikh Zayed’s idea.
