Iraq Says Will Not Invite Syria to Arab Summit
Iraq will not invite the Syrian government or opposition to an Arab summit to be held in Baghdad in late March, Iraq's foreign minister said in an interview broadcast on Friday.
"Syria is not invited and we will not send an invitation to it" to attend the summit, Hoshyar Zebari said in an interview with Iraqiya television.
"The decision about Syria's participation is not our decision, but rather is the decision of the Arab League, and we are committed to the Arab League's decision," he said.
He added that "there is a long time from now until the date of the summit, and by discussion ... we will clarify this subject."
Zebari said that the Syrian opposition will also not be invited.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been carrying out a bloody crackdown on an uprising against his rule, in which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says more than 7,600 people have been killed in 11 months.
Arab League member states voted in November to suspend Syria's participation in the Arab League because of the violence.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had said in an interview with Al-Rashid TV broadcast on February 18 that Iraq wanted Syria to participate in the summit if it is not barred from doing so by its suspension from the Arab League.
Zabari also said that Iraq is capable of securing the areas where the summit will be held, after a wave of attacks across the country left 42 people dead and more than 250 wounded on Thursday.
"We gave commitments that we are capable and able to protect the areas and the spaces where the activities of the summit will be held," Zebari said.
An Arab security delegation left on Thursday, and its "evaluation was that there are security challenges but when it comes to the summit, the geographical spaces where the summit will be held are secured and safe," he said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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