Sunday, March 11, 2007
Turkey offers to host follow-up Iraq security meeting
Politics, Security, International
(Al Jazeera) Iraq's prime minister has urged regional powers, including Iran and Syria, not to use the country as a proxy battleground. Nuri al-Maliki made the plea in the opening speech of a conference in Baghdad aimed at ending sectarian violence in Iraq and stopping it from spreading in the region. Al-Maliki also urged other countries in the oil-rich region to stop supporting sectarian violence and do all they could to help Baghdad, saying it was in everyone's interest to stop sectarian blood from spilling over Iraq's borders.
The conference has been deemed by Iraq as a success. "The meeting was constructive and positive in fact in its atmosphere and the composition," Hoshiyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said adding that committees had been set up for security, refugees, fuel and power.
After talks between senior officials at the Baghdad conference, the United States said Turkey had offered to host a planned follow-up ministerial-level conference in April and that Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, would attend the meeting. The 16 nations at the long-awaited conference agreed to establish a committee to look at security co-operation, as well as two others focusing on Iraqi refugees and energy issues. Zebari described the meeting "constructive and positive" and said Iraq and its neighbours had decided to hold another mid-level in Turkey next month.
The delegates, however, failed to agree on a date and venue for a follow-up conference at a higher, ministerial level. "What the conference achieved was exploration and preparation, explorations of the different positions of people attending this conference and preparation for the upcoming conference in Istanbul," Jasim Azawi, the presenter of Al Jazeera's Inside Iraq programme, said.
After talks between senior officials at the Baghdad conference, the United States said Turkey had offered to host a planned follow-up ministerial-level conference in April and that Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, would attend the meeting. The 16 nations at the long-awaited conference agreed to establish a committee to look at security co-operation, as well as two others focusing on Iraqi refugees and energy issues. Zebari described the meeting "constructive and positive" and said Iraq and its neighbours had decided to hold another mid-level in Turkey next month.
The delegates, however, failed to agree on a date and venue for a follow-up conference at a higher, ministerial level. "What the conference achieved was exploration and preparation, explorations of the different positions of people attending this conference and preparation for the upcoming conference in Istanbul," Jasim Azawi, the presenter of Al Jazeera's Inside Iraq programme, said.
Iran's envoy to to the talks rejected allegations that his country was fomenting violence in Iraq and blamed the fighting on the presence of US forces. "It will help resolve the problem of violence if they set a timetable for withdrawal of their troops from Iraq," Abbas Araghchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said.
Labels: Baghdad security conference, Iran, Turkey, U.S.
