Home
Tuesday, Dec 06 2011 3PM
Arab nations want UN meeting on Iraq
Comments (0)
Add to My Stories
Arab nations have formally requested a United Nations General Assembly
meeting on Iraq, in a bid to win approval for a ceasefire resolution.
Yemen's UN Ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi, the Arab Group's chairman this month, sent a letter to general assembly president Jan Kavan requesting that the world body add a meeting on "the situation in Iraq" to its current agenda, assembly spokesman Richard Sydenham said.
The assembly's General Committee will meet on Friday morning to consider the request. The new agenda item must be approved by at least 15 of the committee's 28 members. If it is approved, the full 191-member general assembly would then have to vote to add Iraq to the agenda.
Alsaidi said on Monday that the group would seek a "very mild" resolution. "It will ask for a ceasefire, respect for Iraqi sovereignty, territorial integrity. It will ask for the unity of Iraq."
But US Ambassador John Negroponte said last week that the United States did not think that raising the issue in the general assembly was "either necessary or desirable".
At the request of Arab and Islamic nations, the UN Security Council held a two-day open meeting on Iraq on March 26-27, more than a week after the war began.
Negroponte said there was "ample discussion" in the council, which is still dealing with the issue, "so we see no necessity whatsoever for a discussion of the Iraq question in the general assembly".
US officials say this position remains unchanged and Washington will try to block a meeting on Iraq.
Iraq's UN Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri said the Arab Group knew that nearly 50 countries in the US-led coalition supporting the war would try to prevent a general assembly resolution which asks "for these occupying powers to withdraw from Iraq and to preserve the independence, territorial integrity, and sovereignty of Iraq".
But he said Iraq was facing "the destruction of a whole country and the killing of several thousand people" and "we think the international community has to shoulder its responsibilities. The representative of this international community is the general assembly of the United Nations," Al-Douri said.
Read more: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[b]
Arab nations want UN meeting on Iraq
Comments (0)
Add to My Stories
Arab nations have formally requested a United Nations General Assembly
meeting on Iraq, in a bid to win approval for a ceasefire resolution.Yemen's UN Ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi, the Arab Group's chairman this month, sent a letter to general assembly president Jan Kavan requesting that the world body add a meeting on "the situation in Iraq" to its current agenda, assembly spokesman Richard Sydenham said.
The assembly's
General Committee will meet on Friday morning to consider the request. The new agenda item must be approved by at least 15 of the committee's 28 members. If it is approved, the full 191-member general assembly would then have to vote to add Iraq to the agenda.Alsaidi said on Monday that the group would seek a "very mild" resolution.
"It will ask for a ceasefire, respect for Iraqi sovereignty, territorial integrity. It will ask for the unity of Iraq."But US Ambassador John Negroponte said last week that the United States did not think that raising the issue in the general assembly was "either necessary or desirable".
At the request of Arab and Islamic nations, the UN Security Council held a two-day open meeting on
Iraq on March 26-27, more than a week after the war began.Negroponte said there was "ample discussion" in the council, which is still dealing with the issue, "so we see no necessity whatsoever for a discussion of the Iraq question in the general assembly".
US officials say this position remains unchanged and Washington will try to block a meeting on Iraq.
Iraq's UN Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri said the Arab Group knew that nearly 50 countries in the US-led coalition supporting the war would try to prevent a general assembly resolution which asks "for these occupying powers to withdraw from Iraq and to preserve the independence, territorial integrity, and sovereignty of Iraq".
But he said Iraq was facing "the destruction of a whole country and the killing of several thousand people" and "we think the international community has to shoulder its responsibilities. The representative of this international community is the general assembly of the United Nations," Al-Douri said.
Read more: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[b]
