Libya, March 26: Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he will stay the course for a summit of Arab leaders in Libya after Baghdad and Tripoli resolved a dispute that had him ready to pack and go home.
“There is no more question of the Iraqi delegation pulling out (of the summit),” Zebari told reporters in the Mediterranean city of Sirte where he will represent his country at a summit of Arab leaders on Saturday and Sunday.
“We will contribute, we will participate and we will work for the success of this summit,” he added.
A top Arab diplomat said earlier that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had ordered Zebari to quit the summit in protest at a meeting this week between Libyan leader Moamer Gathafi and Iraqi opposition figures.
“Maliki instructed Zebari to leave by the end of the day Thursday in protest at a meeting granted by Gadhafi to a delegation of Iraqi opposition figures,” the diplomat said.
He ordered that the Iraqi delegation to the Arab summit be scaled back, leaving behind in Sirte Iraq’s permanent representative to the Arab League.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa and several foreign ministers preparing for the weekend summit intervened and persuaded Zebari to stay on in Libya for the summit.
Zebari also said “we heard clarifications from the Libyan side” and that later he spoke to the Maliki and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and was instructed to continue participating in the summit.
He declined to elaborate on the spat between Tripoli and Baghdad but said at the end of a day of discussions behind closed doors with his Arab counterparts “there were some negative positions concerning political developments in Iraq.”
Libya’s official JANA news agency had reported that Gathafi received a high-ranking delegation of Iraqi opposition leaders on Sunday, including former members of the outlawed Baath party of now executed president Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi delegation included former oil minister Issam Shalabi as well as ex-Baathist Salah Omar al-Ali, the agency said.
Iraq is due to host next year’s Arab summit, after forgoing its turn to hold this year’s amid political tensions and security concerns.
“It is Iraq’s right to host the next summit next year,” Zebari told reporters.
“The security situation is improving and we hope that by next year we will be able to host the summit.”
Arab delegates has said earlier that several foreign ministers had expressed reservations over Iraq’s wish to host the summit on its national soil, citing the security situation and the presence of US and other foreign troops there.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told a morning session that his country would not attend a summit in Iraq as long as US troops remained deployed in the country.
In order to defuse the tensions, Arab League chief Amr Mussa suggested that Iraq could hold the summit at Arab League headquarters in Cairo if the situation in Iraq is a cause of concern.
—Agencies