DOHA, 21 December 2002 — The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council urged Iraq yesterday to work with the United Nations and spare the region war after Washington said Baghdad was in “material breach” of a UN resolution by failing to disclose deadly weapons.
Abdul-Rahman Al-Attiya, secretary general of the council, said the Iraq crisis would be discussed at a GCC summit which starts in Doha today.
Asked about the material breach charge, which could be used to trigger war against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Attiya told reporters: “We hope Iraq will work with legal international resolutions, especially Resolution 1441 and with international inspectors in a way that spares the friendly Iraqi people suffering and spares the region instability.”
Asked if a war was still avoidable, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said: “I thought that was a last resort.” He was speaking after attending a closed meeting of foreign ministers of the group in the Qatari capital to prepare for the summit.
Prince Saud is representing the Kingdom at the annual session after Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, decided not to attend the summit.
The only heads of state at the summit will be those of Qatar and Oman. Bahrain is sending its foreign minister instead of the king who attended last year’s session, while the leaders of Kuwait and the UAE do not usually attend the summits.
“Representation is a matter of sovereignty, up to each member state to decide,” Attiya said. “The important thing is that they are all coming,” he added.
According to the Qatari daily Al-Raya, Kuwait will ask the summit to take “a unified position on the (Dec. 7) speech by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein” in which he apologized to the Kuwaiti people over the 1990 invasion of their country, but accused the emirate’s rulers of plotting with the United States against Baghdad.
The summit is due to examine the introduction on Jan. 1 of a customs union among the six states, but a senior GCC official said in remarks published Thursday that the bloc had decided to put off implementation of parts of the pact. (Agencies)
