QATAR: IRAQ TRADES INSULTS WITH KUWAIT AT THE ORGANISATION OF THE ISLAMIC SUMMIT CONFERENCE EMERGENCY MEETING IN DOHA ON THE IRAQ CRISIS.

Record ID: 645775

  • Title: QATAR: IRAQ TRADES INSULTS WITH KUWAIT AT THE ORGANISATION OF THE ISLAMIC SUMMIT CONFERENCE EMERGENCY MEETING IN DOHA ON THE IRAQ CRISIS.
  • Date: 5th March 2003
  • Summary: (W3) DOHA, QATAR (MARCH 5, 2003) (REUTERS) WS/INTERIOR: CAMERA CREWS OUTSIDE CONFERENCE ROOM AT A DOHA HOTEL. MV/TRACK: SHEIKH HAMAD BIN JASSIM BIN JABOR AL THANI, QATAR FOREIGN MINISTER, LEADING OMAN DELEGATION INTO CONFERENCE ROOM. SCU: NABIL SHAATH, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR, WALKING OFF. MV: ARMY OFFICIALS IN UNIFORMS ARRIVING. SCU/TRACK:IRANIAN DELEGATION WALKING INTO CONFERENCE ROOM. WS: OF DELEGATES OUTSIDE CONFERENCE ROOM. MV/TRACK: HOSNI MUBARAK, EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT, ARRIVING. MV:SIGN. ZOOM OUT: TO DELEGATES IN HALLWAY. SCU: SHEIKH HAMAD BIN KHALIFA AL-THANI, EMIR OF QATAR AND HOST OF CONFERENCE, SEATED ON PODIUM. PAN/SCU: EMIR'S SON, THE HEIR APPARENT. MV: ABDULLAH GUL, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER, SEATED BEHIND TURKISH FLAG. MV: DELEGATES TALKING TO EACH OTHER. MV: IZZAT IBRAHIM, IRAQ'S VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE REVOLUTION COMMAND COUNCIL, ONE OF SADDAM'S TOP LIEUTENANTS (ON LEFT) TALKING TO DELEGATE ZOOM OUT/WS: CONFERENCE ROOM AND DELEGATES. MV/PAN: MEDIA: MV: MOROCCAN DELEGATION SEATED. WS: DELEGATES SEATED. MV: IZZAT IBRAHIM, IRAQ'S VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE REVOLUTION COMMAND COUNCIL, ONE OF SADDAM'S TOP LIEUTENANTS (ON LEFT) LOOKING AT DOCUMENTS. WS: OF PODIUM AND QATAR'S EMIR. WS: OF CONFERENCE ROOM.
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DOHA, QATAR
  • Country: Qatar
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA28XTR89A21IM2UEUJXWJHRYK9
  • Story Text: Saddam Hussein's right-hand man, Izzat Ibrahim, lashed out at U.S. ally Kuwait on Wednesday, calling its representative at an emergency Islamic summit in the Qatari capital Doha a "monkey" and a "traitor".
    "Shut up you minion, you (U.S.) agent, you monkey. You are addressing Iraq," spat out Ibrahim, the second-in-command of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, as the unidentified Kuwaiti delegate tried to interrupt his tirade.
    The live television broadcast of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit's opening speeches was cut off as the shouting erupted and the Kuwaiti delegation briefly walked out.
    The official from Kuwait, which was liberated from Iraqi occupation in 1991 by a U.S.-led force, and is now host to thousands of U.S. troops preparing for a new war on Iraq, tried to shout back, but could not be heard over the fray.
    But, after Ibrahim was silenced, the Kuwaiti said "These are all lies. These are the words of an infidel and a charlatan."
    Ibrahim is said to be among Iraqi leaders earmarked for capture or killing in case of a U.S. invasion of Iraq -- and the summit put him in easy range of U.S. troops in Qatar.
    The summit venue is a hotel used by the U.S. military to arrange media coverage of a possible war, and the U.S. base on the other side of Doha houses several thousand U.S. troops and the headquarters which would direct any attack on Iraq.
    Ibrahim was among leaders and senior officials from the world's Islamic states meeting to try to rally the voices of one billion Muslims against war on Iraq.
    In his speech, he reminded delegates his country had suffered 12 years of U.N. sanctions, which he said was much more than what Kuwait had gone through.
    Kuwaiti Information Minister Sheik Ahmad Al-Fahd Al-Ahmad told reporters outside the chamber "this proves that Iraq still harbours enmity towards Kuwait". He said Kuwait would lodge a formal protest with the OIC, but was not withdrawing from the one-day summit.
    "It will take a miracle to resolve the Iraq crisis and this miracle is in the Iraqis' hands," the Kuwaiti minister said. "But time is running out."
    The outburst underlined the improbability of any war-stopping initiative from the extraordinary summit of the 56-member OIC.
    Only a quarter of the countries in the world's largest Islamic grouping sent their heads of state. Some warned it might only serve to underline their diplomatic impotence.
    Osama al-Baz, an aide to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said he did not expect new proposals.
    Host nation Qatar said it hoped the summit would at least send a strong message to Baghdad and Washington that Muslim nations wanted every effort made to end the crisis peacefully.
    OIC Secretary General Abdelouahed Belkeziz said the Islamic nation "with all its political weight, power and resources" could makes its voice heard, if it was united and sincere.
    Recent Muslim summits have been marred by arguments and two Muslim initiatives to prevent war have been discarded.
    At the Arab League summit in Cairo on Saturday (March 1), a row exploded between the Saudi and Libyan delegations, and the final resolutions were watered down to appease all attendees.
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