Iraq Issue Not Likely Be Mentioned in Arab Summit Communique: ReportIt is not likely that the Iraq issue will be mentioned in the final communique of the Arab summit, which is to end Wednesday in Jordanian capital Amman, a TV report said.Arab leaders attending the two-day event have so far failed to reach a compromise on the Iraq issue which can be acceptable to both Iraq and Kuwait, the report said. It seems that the final communique, due to be released at the end of the summit, is not going to mention the Iraq issue, the report added. Iraq demands that the summit issue a clear call for unilaterally lifting the decade-old United Nations sanctions against it, which has been rejected by countries including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, who insisted that Iraq must first meet preconditions in return for the summit's call for lifting the sanctions. Kuwait has made it clear that there will be no reconciliation with Iraq until Baghdad apologizes for its invasion of the small emirate in 1990, releases some 600 prisoners of war from the 1991 Gulf War and returns to Kuwait "stolen property." Iraq said that if its demand for a unilaterally break of sanctions is not met, it is better for the summit not to address the Iraq issue to avoid rifts in the Arab world. Iraq-Kuwait relations and the UN sanctions against Iraq topped the agenda of the Arab summit among a wide range of other issues, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Arab policy towards Israel. The UN imposed crippling sanctions against Iraq ever since it invaded Kuwait in 1990. |
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