IRAQ: foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari blames failed talks on lack of Syrian seriousness

Record ID: 278706

  • Title: IRAQ: foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari blames failed talks on lack of Syrian seriousness
  • Date: 15th October 2009
  • Summary: SBAGHDAD, IRAQ (OCTOBER 14, 2009) (REUTERS) IRAQ'S FOREIGN MINISTER HOSHIYAR ZEBARI AT PODIUM OF NEWS CONFERENCE CAMERA OPERATORS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IRAQ'S FOREIGN MINISTER, HOSHIYAR ZEBARI, SAYING: "Iraq and the Iraqi government have responded to all the initiatives and attempts that aimed at finding a logical compromise to calm down the crisis that happened between
  • Embargoed: 30th October 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA26F49A2WRQMZNSO1OOWJYUP9S
  • Story Text: Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Wednesday (October 14) that all attempts at mediation with neighbouring Syria had failed because Damascus had not taken the talks seriously.
    On Sept. 17, Zebari and his Syrian counterpart Walid Mouallem met in Istanbul for talks to defuse tensions over deadly bombings that struck Baghdad in August, with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the Arab League also sitting in.
    Turkey had been acting as a mediator in the crisis sparked by the two neighbours' tit-for-tat recall of envoys in September, six days after massive bomb attacks in Baghdad whose masterminds, Iraq says, are harboured in Syria.
    "Iraq and the Iraqi government have responded to all the initiatives and attempts that aimed at finding a logical compromise to calm down the crisis that happened between Iraq and Syria. We have responded to the Turkish initiative and the initiative of the Arab League as we had held during the past time four ministerial and security meetings but regrettably these meetings did not reach any result or even find a horizon for expected solutions to resolve this issue," Zebari said at a news conference in Baghdad.
    The August 19 bombings, dubbed "Bloody Wednesday", killed nearly 100 people at twin truck blasts near the finance and foreign ministries in the Iraqi capital. The row was triggered by Baghdad alleging that Damascus was harbouring two leaders of the former Iraqi Baath Party who plotted the finance and foreign ministry bombings.
    Zebari said that Iraq will not participate in any future meetings as it did not find any serious action from Syria.
    "Iraq will not participate in future meetings because we did not find any seriousness to resolve these issues. Even the mediators, we have not found any vision or heard any suggestion or any solution for the two sides that will enable them to reach a solution," he added.
    Zebari said Iraq's best solution is to call on the UN to appoint a U.N high level employee whose work is to assess volume of security intervention in Iraq.
    "The result and the conclusion we have reached is to call for the Secretary General of the United Nations to name a U.N employee, a high-level employee, to work on assessing the volume of foreign interference in Iraq and to assess the results and the impact of Wednesday's crime," Zebari added.
    Last month, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Iraq had almost no hope of receiving counter-terrorism cooperation from Syria and he unequivocally rejected Arab offers to mediate.
    Maliki wants the United Nations to establish an independent commission into the bombings, and alleges that 90 percent of foreign "terrorists" who infiltrate Iraq, do so via Syria.
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