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Islamic Nationsâ Summit: Uproar over Kuwait slur
You've gotta hand it to these guys - there's not diplomatic BS here, they cut to the chase...Leaders of Islamic nations have begun an emergency summit in the Gulf State of Qatar on the crisis in Iraq. Within minutes, a top aide of Saddam Hussein caused uproar when he called a Kuwaiti representative a "monkey" and a "traitor". "Shut up you minion, you [US] agent, you monkey. You are addressing Iraq," said Izzat Ibrahim, the second-in-command of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council. Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah tried to fight back but his comments could not be heard over the fray, correspondents said. Refreshing to see the pleasantries were kept to a mimimum. The row began when the Kuwaiti official interrupted Mr Ibrahim's speech which was highly critical of Kuwait and the US, which led a coalition to liberate the Gulf state from Iraqi occupation in 1991. Mr Ibrahim cursed the official's honour at which another Kuwaiti minister jumped up and waved a small Kuwaiti flag which had been on the desk. Hope this will be televised. The angry exchange was halted when the summit chairman, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin-Khalifah al-Thani said the discussion was not relevant to the meeting and moved on to the next speaker. The aim of the summit is to present a unified front from the Muslim world calling for war to be averted. It is the first attempt by the Islamic world as a whole to find a common voice on the Iraq crisis. Heads of state and representatives from 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference are taking part. The summit at a five-star hotel in Doha is just a short distance from a vast American military base from where the US would control an invasion of Iraq. Wonder if the USAF will be doing any honorary fly-bys. On the agenda is an initiative put forward by the United Arab Emirates to call on Saddam Hussein to stand down. Kuwait and Bahrain have backed the idea and it has been described as A BBC correspondent at the meeting, Claire Marshall, [sic] Mr Ibrahim will be keen to try to dismiss any talk of his leader's exile. While there will be a battle to reach a consensus, the bigger task will be to make any resolution count, she adds. The Islamic conference has no power to enforce its decrees. As one Malaysian delegate put it, "If the US President, George W Bush, is prepared to ignore the United Nations, then certainly we will be irrelevant to him. " I think he'll find this a bizarre and entertaining diversion from more important affairs. Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-05 |
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