CAIRO, 25 August 2003 — The head of Iraq’s US-appointed governing council, which has failed to win Arab backing, said yesterday a representative would attend a September meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League in Cairo.
Ibrahim Jaafari, on the first high-level visit by a council member to Egypt, held talks in Cairo with Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Prime Minister Atef Obeid — despite previous Egyptian insistance it does not recognize the body’s legitimacy.
Jaaferi told reporters the council would send a representative to the September meeting “whether it be the foreign minister, whom we intend to appoint soon, (or somebody else) to come and occupy Iraq’s natural and legitimate place among the Arab foreign ministers.”
A group of Arab foreign ministers meeting at the league earlier this month called the council’s formation a step in the right direction, but would not be drawn on whether the body would be allowed to take up Iraq’s league seat.
Arab political heavyweight Egypt said this month that it and other Arab states could not recognize the legitimacy of the council. Arabs have called for a government elected by Iraqis and a quick end to the US-led occupation of the country.
The Iraqi delegation, which arrived in Egypt from Saudi Arabia, was due to hold talks later yesterday with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who strongly opposed the US-led war to overthrow the government of Saddam Hussein.
Jaafari, who was not joined by Maher in the news conference, said that by inviting the council to meet their officials, Arab states were moving closer to recognizing its legitimacy.
Egypt, a close US ally, had said it would receive the delegation as Iraqi individuals, not as council representatives. Jaafari said: “We didn’t come here on a personal level and we didn’t come for tourism. We came here on political business.” He said the delegation would continue its tour in Jordan.
Yemen’s Saba news agency said the Iraqi delegation will visit Sana’a today for talks with Yemeni officials.
The agency quoted the Foreign Ministry’s undersecretary Abdullah Al-Radhi as saying that, “the visit of the Iraqi delegation comes after Yemen’s approval of a (visit) request,” from the Iraqi council. Yemen’s position toward Iraq is based on “the need for empowering the Iraqi people to choose its representatives through democratic elections,” the Yemeni official said. But, Yemen “would hear the views of our (Iraqi) brothers and help enrich those views,” Al-Radhi said.
