CAIRO, 14 March 2003 — A last-ditch Arab League effort to head off a US-led war on Iraq was buried yesterday as Baghdad blocked a visit by Arab foreign ministers, suspecting that the mission planned to do Washington’s bidding.
In a statement to the Arab League, the Iraqi government said “recent developments in Iraq concerning the American aggression” were blocking the Baghdad visit planned for today by the Arab ministerial committee.
“Consequently, Iraq suggests the postponement of the visit,” added the statement, according to the 22-member organization based in Cairo.
The follow-up committee was set up by the Arab League summit at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt on March 1 with the aim of demonstrating a united Arab front against war.
It comprises the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Tunisia, as well as Arab League chief Amr Moussa. It has already visited New York to speak to US officials and members of the UN Security Council.
It was to have left for Bahrain, current president of the Arab League, yesterday and traveled on to Baghdad today, with a meeting planned with President Saddam Hussein tomorrow. Moussa called the postponement “a negative development which comes at an inappropriate time”.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said the delay “was not the appropriate decision”. Iraq had decided to postpone the trip after some delegation members had shown hesitancy in going to Baghdad for reasons “he did not understand,” Egypt’s official MENA news agency quoted him as saying.
Asharq Al-Awsat quoted Arab sources as saying that Syria and Lebanon had withdrawn from the delegation. It said some ministers were uneasy that the delegation might raise a controversial proposal from the United Arab Emirates that Saddam go into exile to avoid war.
