FM back to Arab summit after Maliki’s phone call with AL chief

BAGHDAD /Iraqi News Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has rejoined the Arab summit in Libya after Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League (AL), phoned Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “Moussa phoned al-Maliki today (Thursday) in a bid to ease the situation after the Iraqi premier asked Foreign Minister Zebari to withdraw from the Libya Arab summit in protest over Libyan Leader Muhammar Gaddafi’s remarks,” a source close to Maliki told Iraqi News. The source did not give further details. Earlier, Maliki asked his Foreign Minister Zebari and his accompanying delegation to withdraw from the Arab summit as soon as the foreign ministers’ meeting wrapped up in protest over remarks by Gaddafi. “Prime Minister Maliki asked Foreign Minister Zebari and the Iraqi delegation accompanying him at the Arab summit, currently hosted by Libya, to withdraw,” a source in Maliki’s office told Aswat al-Iraq. Maliki’s calls “were in response to a meeting Gaddafi had held with a group of Baathists and his pledge to them that he would carry their ideas and proposals to the summit as representatives of Iraq,” the source added. “Gaddafi also told the group of Baathists that he would as well demand opening the issue of execution of former President Saddam Hussein coinciding with the setting up of a memorial for Saddam in Libya,” he said. Gaddafi’s remarks sent angry shockwaves in the official, political and popular circles in Iraq, the source noted. MH (S)/AmR 2