OIC says looking forward to troop withdrawal from Iraq

BAGHDAD /Iraqi News The secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said it is looking forward to the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and to concordance among political powers. “The OIC has continued its support for Iraq‘s unity, sovereignty and independence and the preservation of its Arab and Islamic identities,” Ihsanoglu said in his speech at the 22nd Arab summit in the Libyan city of Sirte. “We are looking forward to the withdrawal of foreign troops from its land in the next year…,” he pointed out. The summit kicked off earlier today with the participation of Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Zebari had 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, who earlier asked Zebari and his accompanying delegation to withdraw from the summit as soon as the foreign ministers’ meeting was wrapped up in protest over remarks by Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi. 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,” a source close to Maliki said. Gaddafi’s remarks sent angry shockwaves in the official, political and popular circles in Iraq, the source noted. SS (S)/SR 1