Calls for Saddam Hussein to resign cause a diplomatic incident in Doha. Dina Ezzat reports A stormy exchange of rough accusations between top Iraqi and Kuwaiti officials broke out yesterday during the opening session of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Doha. The exchange -- contained after 10 minutes -- brought back unpleasant memories of Arab meetings of the early 1990s, when Iraq invaded Kuwait in a dispute over oil. "It is very sad. This is definitely not the time for such a ridiculous exchange," commented one senior Arab official, who was taking part in the Doha emergency summit convened to examine the developments on Iraq. "The entire Arab world is faced with a disaster, and here we are wasting our time dealing with internal disputes, instead of joining ranks." The exchange began when Izzat Ibrahim, Iraqi vice president and head of the Iraqi delegation to the OIC meeting, veered from his written remarks to launch a verbal attack against Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed, who is head of the Kuwaiti delegation. Ibrahim harshly criticised Al-Ahmed for alluding to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's resignation as the only way to spare Iraq and the entire region from the bitter consequences of an inevitable war. In his statement before the opening session of the OIC meeting, the Kuwaiti foreign minister praised an initiative circulated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last Saturday during the Arab summit in Sharm El-Sheikh. The initiative urges Hussein to go into exile with his top officials and promises adequate arrangements, appropriate privileges and guarantees that they would not be pursued for any legal charges. The initiative also requested that Hussein leave Iraq within two weeks and allow the United Nations and Arab League to temporarily administer Iraqi affairs until an interim government is elected. To the dismay of the UAE this initiative was all but completely disregarded by Arab leaders in Sharm El-Sheikh. The initiative was later accorded mild support during a meeting of foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council that convened in Doha on Monday, but was sidestepped for further Arab consultations. On the eve of the OIC meeting, the Foreign Minister of Qatar Hamad Bin Jassim told reporters that, contrary to press reports, there was no indication that the UAE initiative would be tabled for official discussion during the Iraq-focussed OIC meeting. "It was not tabled for discussion," an Arab source who took part in the meeting told Al-Ahram Weekly in a telephone interview. "Actually, the UAE delegation did not mention it during the opening session. But we had the scene when Kuwait mentioned that it is the only Arab country to publicly offer support for the exile plan." Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that while this initiative is receiving much attention in talks on the fringe of the Doha meeting, it has become a taboo subject in the official proceedings. "It is understandable," the source suggested. In Sharm El-Sheikh the Iraqi delegation threatened to call for the exile of other Arab leaders if the initiative was officially tabled for discussion. This should have closed the door on any public debate on the matter. "The UAE ideas constitute a brave and enlightened initiative that should be taken up by the Iraqi leadership, which needs to sacrifice its own interests for the sake of the interests of its people," Al-Ahmed told the OIC gathering. "How dare he [Al-Ahmed] be so rude and arrogant and attack the hero and symbol of the nation [Saddam Hussein]," Ibrahim shouted. Accusing Kuwaiti leaders of causing both Iraq and Kuwait huge losses, Ibrahim did not forget to use the word "state" while referring to the neighbouring country, which often contends that Iraq still harbours old territorial claims over its sovereignty. Within minutes, delegates from more than 50 member states were caught up by the exchange, which degenerated into name calling and incendiary accusations. "You are an absolute stupid liar," Kuwaiti Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohamed Al-Sabah told Ibrahim. "You are a coward and lousy agent of imperialism," Ibrahim shot back. Cutting the debate short before it got out of hand, Hamad Bin Khalifa, the emir of Qatar and current chair of the OIC, used his prerogative as head of the meeting to end the debate. Bin Khalifa managed to convince the Kuwaiti delegation to withdraw its request for reply, insisting that the OIC meeting was not convening to allow for an exchange of accusations, but to discuss ways of dealing with the current standoff over Iraq. "Its repercussions may overshadow the rest of the meeting, but the exchange was actually contained very quickly," commented one conference participant. "The Qatari foreign minister immediately mediated between the Iraqi and Kuwaiti delegations to end the conflict." On the fringe of the official meeting, Qatari officials also managed to bring together members of the Iraqi and UAE delegations to preempt a potential crisis between the two countries over the exile initiative. Although the UAE has been the only country to officially propose Hussein going into exile, other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have been talking about this in secret. Indeed, in his statement before the OIC opening session in Doha yesterday, Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul called on the Iraqi leadership to do everything possible to prevent the war. The OIC summit is expected to issue a communiqué at the end of its meeting, the language of which is expected to be similar to the language of communiqués and resolutions adopted recently by the Non-Aligned Movement summit, which took place in Kuala Lumpur, and the Arab summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, namely: oppose war, but stop short of agreeing to deny the US military facilities to launch its war against Iraq.
