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Iraq says regional interference affecting
stability
10.9.2007
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September 10, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- Iraq on Sunday lashed out at its
neighbours for interfering in its internal affairs
and warned that violence they were stoking in the
war-ravaged country could engulf the entire region.
"Many countries say they support Iraq's stability
and integrity, but at the same time are interfering
in a number of different ways," Foreign Minister
Hoshyar Zebari said at the end of the high-profile
Baghdad Conference.
Declining to elaborate, he did however note that
Iran's shelling of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region
was among issues affecting regional stability.
"It does not help the atmosphere and we don't want
our relations to be affected by this," he said,
adding that the shelling was "disproportionate" to
the threat posed by Kurdish guerrilla groups in the
region. |
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari |
Zebari had earlier told delegates attending the
one-day conference in the Iraqi capital that Iraq
wanted "practical contribution in controlling the
borders and preventing infiltrators like terrorists
and killers crossing into Iraq." Failure to do so
would "expose them (neighbours) to its dangers."
In a short but hard-hitting speech he pulled no
punches.
"We need to say... those interfering in Iraq's
affairs must lay their hands off this nation and
leave it to decide its destiny away from terrorism,"
Zebari said.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki opened the conference
with a warning that the entire region could be
subjected to the "terrorism" being experienced by
Iraq.
The neighbours, he said, must work "seriously" to
prevent this happening.
The embattled premier warned that "evil forces" such
as Al-Qaeda wanted to strike the region and they do
"not stop at the border of one country."
"We have to stand united and face this evil," Maliki
said, adding that Baghdad was determined to return
the situation in Iraq back to normal.
The Baghdad Conference was attended by Iraq's
neighbours, including Iran, and delegates from the
G8 countries as well as the five permanent members
of the UN Security Council.
It was called to thrash out common strategies to end
Iraq's sectarian violence, to find ways to fuel the
country's energy needs and to address the refugee
crisis triggered by the volatile security situation.
The meeting comes a day before leading US officials
in Iraq begin testifying before Congress in
Washington on progress in the war-torn country.
Iraqi security officials, meanwhile, said 15 people,
including five policemen and five soldiers were
killed in separate attacks in the country on Sunday.
Washington repeatedly accuses Iraq's former foe Iran
and its western neighbour Syria of fomenting
violence in the country.
The US military accuses Tehran-linked groups of
funding, arming and training extremists to fight US
troops in Iraq, while it says Syria does not do
enough to crack down on foreign fighters slipping
through its porous border to fight in Iraq.
Tehran and Damascus deny the charges.
Iran was represented by Deputy Foreign Minister
Mohammed Reza Baqeri who said the day's negotiations
had been "successful."
"It was an important meeting and was evidence that
the Iraqi government can hold such a big meeting. It
showed that the security situation in Baghdad is
better than it was during the first meeting" in
March, he said.
The United States was represented by senior embassy
official Patricia Butenis in the absence of
Ambassador Ryan Crocker, one of the officials to
report to Congress this week.
"The conference is an important demonstration of the
Iraqi government's desire to work with its neighbors
as it pursues political and economic progress," a US
embassy statement said.
The focus of the conference was on commitments made
at the first groundbreaking conference on March 10
and at a similar meeting held in Egypt in May.
After the opening session, delegates split into the
three working groups set up after the Sharm
el-Sheikh meeting -- dealing with security, the
plight of four million Iraqis displaced internally
or who have fled to Jordan and Syria, and Iraq's
energy crisis.
The committees came up with firm proposals and these
would be put before the next ministerial-level
meeting, slated for Istanbul on October 31 and
November 1, foreign minister Zebari said.
AFP
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