Gulf Arabs Differ With Us Over Attacks On Iraq
...There are no disagreements but there are differences in opinion, Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah told reporters when asked if Gulf Arab states were in disagreement with Washington over its missile attacks last week on southern Iraq.
Abdullah was speaking at the end of a two-day meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers.
A statement issued after the talks earlier on Sunday made no mention of the US attacks and the Omani minister said the group felt there was no need for that.
The GCC groups the main regional allies of the United States: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Abdullah said the GCC totally supports the international coalition.
As for the steps and differences that followed the latest US military operations in Iraq, those are at the centre of discussions between a number of coalition countries.
He said discussions between the GCC members and the US are continuing in a positive manner.
Abdullah added: America had informed the council members of its intention to take some measures in Iraq and it also informed other coalition members. What is important to us is the solidarity of the coalition countries.
Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers glossed over differences about US attacks on Iraq on Saturday, agreeing to condemn Iraqi aggression but studiously avoiding any endorsement of the US action.
Risking upsetting Washington, the ministers also called for a reinstatement of the United Nations' oil-for-food deal for Baghdad when United Nations Secretary General approves it, Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring said on Saturday. The oil-for-food deal was suspended last week after Saddam Hussein sent troops into the so-called Kurdish safe-haven in northern Iraq.
We want to see that (the deal) as soon as conditions are right on the ground, Spring told reporters during a break in informal talks among EU foreign ministers in Tralee, southern Ireland.
He said it was up to United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to decide when that should be.
The ministers emerged from what some EU diplomats said was a tense, four-hour meeting, having agreed on a number of points concerning Iraq, but unable to find a common position for the whole 15-nation bloc.
Although no formal statement was issued, EU president Ireland said the ministers had strongly condemned Iraq's incursion into the northern safe-haven, a move that had upset stability in the region.
It also said Iraq should withdraw all its troops from the region immediately as a precursor to any oil-for-food deal being reopened.
But in a move that immediately received differing interpretations from Britain and France, the ministers were said to have agreed that the EU was committed to the territorial sovereignty of all countries in the region.
We all expressed our belief in the principle of the territorial integrity of Iraq, French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette told reporters.
France has been sharply critical of Washington's launching of missiles last week in a retaliatory action against Iraq.
British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said that in the light of the turbulence in the region, the EU might understand if Turkey, which backs a rival Kurdish faction, went to the support of its allies in the region.
The position echoed that of US Secretary of State Warren Christopher who said in London on Saturday that the United States understood Turkey's reasons for establishing a security zone in Iraq and had been reassured it would be temporary.
Ireland, keen to allay any show of EU disunity on its watch as EU president, played down talk of a major rift among the 15 states.
There was no drama, an Irish spokesman said.
He said the EU was concerned that Iraqi civilians, who have beenhard hit by Western sanctions since the 1991 Gulf War, would suffer if the oil-for-food deal did not go through.
The EU has been embarrassed by its inability to agree on the US actions in Iraq at a time when it is seeking to develop a clearer and more unified voice in foreign policy.
Negotiations on a new EU treaty under the so-called inter-governmental conference (IGC) are supposed to strengthen the bloc's ability to forge such policy.
But the failure to speak with one voice in the Iraq crisis has underlined the difficulty of achieving this while the bloc remains a union of sovereign nations.
Spring also told reporters that a European Union delegation wanted to visit the PLO in disputed East Jerusalem, despite strenuous opposition from Israel.
He said an EU troika of Ireland, the Netherlands and Italy wanted to abide by an earlier EU decision to visit the Palestine Liberation Organisation at the city's Orient House.
I certainly feel we should stick by the...decision, Spring said.
We want to make a contribution to the Middle East peace process and it is important that we keep a balance in our relations with the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.
Irish officials suggested that if the Israeli government tried to prevent the visit, the fact-finding mission to Israel could be cancelled.
If it's not Orient House, there is no point in going, one official said.
Spring's comments followed a visit by Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy to Dublin in which he had urged Ireland, the current EU president, not to go ahead with the Orient House trip.
No date has yet been set for the visit to Israel.
Levy said on Friday he understood from his meetings in Dublin that the EU woulld not send any delegations to Orient House, which he also said PLO President Yasser Arafat had agreed to close.
Israel regards foreign visits to Orient House as supporting PLO demands to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state.
The city's fate is to be negotiated at final peace talks between the two sides.
Spring has said that he wants the informal foreign ministers meeting being held in his home region to focus on ways the EU can further the Middle East peace process.