Sirte, March 25: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari to quit an Arab summit in protest at a meeting this week between Libyan leader Moamer Gathafi and Iraqi opposition figures, a top Arab diplomat said on Thursday.
Zebari was in the Libyan Mediterranean city of Sirte to attend a meeting of Arab foreign ministers and to represent Iraq at a summit on Saturday and Sunday when he was told to pack up and go home, the diplomat said.
“Maliki instructed Zebari to leave by the end of the day Thursday in protest at a meeting granted by Gathafi 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.
The head of the 22-member pan-Arab organisation Amr Mussa met privately with Zebari over breakfast on Thursday to try to contain the diplomatic spat between Libya and Iraq, and convince the Iraqi foreign minister to remain for the summit.
Several Arab foreign ministers also tried to persuade Iraq’s top diplomat to stay but were told by Zebari that he had no choice but to return home, the diplomat added.
Libya’s JANA official news agency said that Gathafi received on Sunday a high-ranking delegation of Iraqi opposition leaders, including former members of the outlawed Baath party of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi delegation included former oil minister Issam Shalabi as well as ex-Baathist Salah Omar al-Ali.
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.
—Agencies