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INTERVIEW-Zebari says Arabs must do more to stabilise Iraq
26 Mar 2007 16:40:42 GMT
Source: Reuters
•  Iraq in turmoil

By Wafa Amr

RIYADH, March 26 (Reuters) - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Monday he would urge Arab countries at an Arab summit this week to take more concrete steps to help end the bloodshed in his country.

"More is currently required from the Arabs...Certainly the Arab states have a vision on how conditions can stabilise in Iraq but what is required is Arab presence, Arab movement or an Arab initiative," he told Reuters ahead of the summit in Riyadh.

"At the summit, we will be making specific requests," he said. "When the Arabs say, 'What do you want,' we will say, 'We want one, two, three, in terms of Arab movement".

In addition to adopting an Arab initiative for peace with Israel, Zebari said Arab foreign ministers had agreed at a meeting on Monday to support reconciliation efforts in Iraq.

"It was also agreed that the Iraqi government's efforts to achieve reconciliation would be supported," he said.

The March 28-29 summit, to be attended by Arab heads of states, is expected to relaunch the 2002 peace plan which offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for full withdrawal from all land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

Arab foreign ministers have agreed they would not make alterations to the proposal as sought by the Jewish state.

"It was agreed that the Arab peace initiative would remain intact without changes," Zebari said. "Work groups will be set up to follow up implementation of the initiative with the U.N., the Quartet, the Security Council and other international parties."

BRITISH CAPTIVES

Israel has said it cannot accept all the terms of the proposal, although Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said it could be a "positive development" on Monday. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab countries who have made peace with the Jewish state.

Zebari had also urged Iran in a telephone call with his Iranian counterpart to free 15 British sailors and marines, which the country's forces captured last week in waters between Iraq and Iran that both countries claim is part of their territory.

"Yesterday, I spoke to the Iranian foreign minister because these forces are present and working in Iraq upon the request of the Iraqi government, therefore, for the ... brotherly relations between Iraq and Iran, I asked that the British sailors be freed to avoid any further repercussions," Zebari said.

He said the Iranian foreign minister told him he would convey the request to his government and that an inquiry of the incident would soon conclude.

Iran says the British military personnel entered Iranian waters illegally, while Britain says they were conducting a routine search of shipping in Iraqi waters in the Shatt al-Arab waterway that forms the southern border between Iraq and Iraq.

Britain said on Monday that Iran had informed it the sailors were fit and well, but had not disclosed their location.


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Last updated:Mon Mar 26 16:42:34 2007