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IRAQ: PLANS INTERNATIONAL, REGIONAL SUMMITS December 8, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) Iraq will hold two crucial conferences on its helpless situation, one to include the United Nations and Arab League, and the other to include only its neighboring nations, the Iraq Foreign Ministry reported Thursday. The more international of the two summits will be held in Baghdad within the next four months, according to the Foreign Ministry. Countries in the region will participate, as well as groups such as the Arab League and the United Nations.
The other conference will be held early next year and will only include representatives of Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, the ministry said.
The announcement came after the Iraq Study Group's report was released on Wednesday in the United States. The report said "the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating." Emphasizing the need for urgent action, it called for a "New Diplomatic Offensive" to launch before the end of this year.
Iraqi officials also will hold a national reconciliation conference, to include political parties and forces in Iraq. That meeting is planned for this month.
On Saturday, Abdul Aziz Hakim, a powerful Shiite leader who met with President Bush this week, rejected U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for an international summit on Iraq. He said that Iraqis, "not conferences outside Iraq," should solve his country's problems.