RIYADH, 13 April 2003 — Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council states will hold an extraordinary meeting here next week to review developments after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the GCC’s secretary general said yesterday.
The meeting will “tackle current regional developments in the wake of the fall of the Iraqi regime,” Abdulrahman Al-Attiya said in a statement. The one-day meeting “will also discuss the formation of an Iraqi national government to safeguard Iraq’s sovereignty, unity and stability.”
The chief diplomats of the six-nation alliance neighboring Iraq will assess their countries’ contribution to the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people, Attiya said.
He expressed hope that the “brotherly Iraqi people will overcome this ordeal” and build a new state that “respects its neighbors and fully complies with Arab, Islamic and international charters” including pertinent UN resolutions.
The GCC states have called for the Iraqi people to choose their own government and decide their future.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal on Wednesday also called for an end to the US-British occupation as soon as possible.
Saudi and other Gulf newspapers called yesterday for an end to lawlessness and looting in Iraqi cities, charging that US-British forces which ousted the regime of President Saddam Hussein were watching the country turn into a jungle.
“What is taking place in Iraqi cities had never been seen in medieval ages or even deep in history when the law of the jungle was predominant,” Al-Watan newspaper said.
“The question is: What are the US-British forces, which claimed that they had come to ‘liberate’ the Iraqi people and bring democracy and freedom from the regime’s oppression, doing?” asked the paper.
“Why are the American forces only watching? Why have they even come to Iraq? Why don’t they have a plan for the security of areas they occupy?” it added. “The whole world is required to move to rescue the Iraqi people from a humanitarian catastrophe that has no parallel in modern history.”
Okaz warned Iraq might break up if law and order were not restored. “What is more serious is that selfish interests and sectarian conflicts between various political and ideological forces may dominate, thus making a foreign presence in Iraq an extreme necessity.”
Al-Riyadh charged that looting and destruction were being encouraged by the invading forces.
“Subjecting the country’s resources to looting, with the encouragement of the invading forces, aims at keeping the Iraqi people engaged in acts of revenge and tribal and sectarian wars, so the US-British saviors can convince the Iraqi people they are needed,” the semi-official paper said.
Abu Dhabi’s Al-Ittihad felt that coalition forces could only begin to win the Iraqis’ trust if they put an end to the anarchy.
Gaining confidence “will not be achieved by smiles while the population lacks security and stability,” the paper wrote.
“The foreign forces present in Iraq are responsible for what is happening to the country. It seems they want to destroy everything in order to convey a distorted image of the Iraqi people,” said Dubai-based Al-Bayan.
Oman’s Al-Watan reminded the United States that under international law, “the occupying power is responsible for maintaining order and security and for protecting the lives of civilians.”
However, it said, “a war which started outside any legal framework is going on without any legality with the objective of sowing sedition among a population with a complex ethnic and confessional makeup.”
