Saturday, 10 March 2007While speculation has been circulating around the Turkish media that Washington planned to hold an international conference on Iraq in İstanbul, an article in the US media added details to that speculation, saying that it was US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who persuaded Foreign Minister Abdullah G+-l to hold such a conference.
Nevertheless, the Turkish capital has so far kept cool in the face of speculation, while putting on a confident face, saying that everybody was aware that it was Turkey's idea from the beginning to have a meeting for Iraq's neighbors in order to raise international awareness on the quagmire in the neighboring country.
Earlier this week, Jim Hoagland, in an article published in The Washington Post, said: "Diplomats tell me that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has persuaded Turkey to host a ministerial conference next month that will include Iraq's neighbors, the permanent members of the UN Security Council and G8 nations, and that she will attend."
In early February, Foreign Minister Abdullah G+-l paid an official visit to Washington where he held talks with Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
"It is Ankara who fostered the idea of having such an international conference from the very beginning," diplomatic sources told Today's Zaman on Friday.
While admitting that the issue was discussed during talks between G+-l and Rice in Washington, sources close to the talks, however, noted it was not Rice who persuaded G+-l. When the issue of holding an international conference came on the agenda, G+-l said that was what Turkey has been suggesting for a while.
The Turkish delegation, led by Turkey's special envoy for Iraq Ambassador Oğuz +çelikkol, will depart this morning from İstanbul for Baghdad in order to participate in a security conference where senior public servants will represent neighboring countries. Baghdad also invited the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the US, Russia, China, Britain and France -- to take part in the conference. The Egyptian delegation, which was expected to arrive in İstanbul Friday, will also be on board of the plane that will carry the Turkish delegation to Baghdad.
The Iraq neighbors' initiative was originally launched by Turkey in January 2003 prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq. In addition to Turkey, Iraq's neighbors include Iran, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The EU and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) were also represented for the first time at the eighth foreign ministerial-level gathering of the initiative held in Istanbul in April 2005.
Ankara has been pondering the idea of gathering Iraq's neighbors together with permanent members of the Security Council as well as with the G8 countries -- the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia -- that have contributed to Iraq.
10 March 2007
By Emine Kart
Todays Zaman |
Saturday, 10 March 2007
Iraq Summit
|
|
