Cairo, May 5 (AKnews) - The Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday that his country will not freeze its membership in the Arab States League after Gulf countries objected recently on holding the Arab Summit in Baghdad and demanded of canceling them in protest at Iraq's position from the demonstrations taking place in Bahrain.
Political and popular Iraqi parties has recently demanded the Iraqi government to suspend its membership in the League of Arab States if the summit was canceled, and this what the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) demanded of last month in protest against Iraq's position towards the suppression of Shiite protesters in Bahrain.
Zebari said at a joint press conference with the Secretary-General of the Arab States League Amr Moussa in Cairo that "the statements which are released here or there about freezing Iraq's membership in the league are due to the democracy that the Iraqi people have."
The Iraqi minister said during the conference that the official position of the Iraqi government is to stay within the joint Arab action system."
The statements came at a time the Secretary-General of the Arab States League Amr Moussa announced the postponement of the summit till March 2012.
"The Iraqi Government considers that the time is not suitable to hold such an important summit in Baghdad so we have submitted a formal request on behalf of the government to postpone the summit till March 2012 to complete the consultations."
The Iraqi minister said that "intensive meetings with colleagues and the Arab foreign ministers took place and we found it more appropriate to stay away from determination, arrogance and stubbornness to accept the new reality that the time is not suitable now."
"With respect to Baghdad, it is ready in terms of preparations, facilities and security but the political conditions are the most important and promted us to postpone the summit."
© AK News 2011
