Sudan would send envoy to Iraq if security OK – minister
Sept 8, 2005 (CAIRO) — Sudan is ready to send an ambassador to Baghdad if conditions in Iraq are safe and secure, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said Wednesday.
Sudan’s offer follows the frustration shown by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday when he said no Arab government has designated an ambassador to Iraq despite assurances received months ago that full-ranking envoys would be named soon.
“If security exists in Iraq, I will immediately send an ambassador to Baghdad and we wonder why American, British and European ambassadors find security there and not the Arab ambassadors,” Ismail said during a news conference in Cairo.
In July, al-Qaida in Iraq kidnapped and killed top diplomats from Egypt and Algeria. Diplomats from Pakistan and Bahrain were also the targets of failed kidnappings.
Ismail, in Cairo for a Thursday Arab League meeting, said he agreed with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, on naming a Sudanese ambassador to Baghdad, but added the move was thwarted “after what had happened to the Arab diplomats.”
The Sudanese official also said an emergency Arab summit will be held Oct. 1 to discuss Iraq, the Palestinian issue after Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and terrorism. The summit was scheduled for Aug. 3 but was indefinitely postponed after Saudi King Fahd’s death.
“The current Arab situation requires a meeting of an Arab summit and we must not sit as spectators waiting for events to take place in Iraq when the Iraqis are calling on the Arabs and the Arab League to play their roles,” Ismail said.
Ismail also met Egypt’s foreign minister and the Arab League chief on talk of improving relations between Pakistan and Israel, telling them “are we going to pay the price for this pullout with normalization of relations between Israel and some Arab and Islamic countries?”
Pakistan and Israel’s foreign ministers met last week, raising concern in the Arab world that the two countries were going to establish diplomatic relations.
But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told counterparts in Syria, Egypt and Jordan by phone that the meeting was “to encourage (Israelis) to resolve the Middle East problem.”
(AP/ST)