Islamic leaders to meet in attempt to allay war
The meeting of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) comes soon after those of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Arab League, and summit organisers here say the outcome of the Doha talks is likely to mirror resolutions adopted at the two previous gatherings.
The Non-Aligned Movement and the Arab League have expressed strong opposition to US and British plans to attack Iraq while at the same time pressing Baghdad to comply with UN disarmament demands.
“We have to come out with an Islamic opinion,” said one summit planner.
“We have the Non-Aligned Movement and the Arab League and now we have to have an Islamic voice,” he went on, adding that the Muslim world would hold the OIC accountable if it failed to act in the face of a threatened strike against a fellow Islamic nation.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, whose country currently chairs the OIC, declined to predict precisely what the summit might accomplish.
But he added: “We all hope to send the right message to the (UN) Security Council, the Iraqis and the United States about what we are thinking in the OIC.”
Summit sources said yesterday Monday that all but two OIC members, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, had agreed to be represented in Doha. Iraq is among those planning to take part, according to the Iraqi News Agency, although it was unclear at what level.
Islamic heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which had earlier questioned the usefulness of holding a summit, will send only a deputy minister to Doha, a Saudi official said yesterday told AFP Monday.
Riyadh and Doha are at loggerheads over the free-wheeling Qatari satellite channel Al-Jazeera, which has aired strong criticism of the kingdom and its rulers.
"Neither Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, nor Foreign Minister Saud Al-Fasial will attend the Islamic summit," said the official, who asked not to be named, adding that the deputy foreign minister, Nizar Madani, would speak for the kingdom here.
The OIC gathering could see a fresh bid by the United Arab Emirates to promote a proposal -- aired over the weekend at the Arab summit in Egypt -- for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to step down and go into exile to avert war.
The idea got short shrift at the Arab League and has drawn tepid -- and somewhat ambiguous -- backing from oil producers in the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council, which yesterday described the UAE initiative as worthy of further consideration.
But in individual statements, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain have spoken positively of the proposal.
Another idea that could surface here is the possibility that Islamic oil producers might use oil as a weapon against the United States if it goes ahead with its threat to defy the UN Security Council and world opinion by attacking Baghad to strip it of its alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Muslim nations discussed such a tactic during the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Kuala Lumpur late last month.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir warned there that tinkering with the oil market could backfire on poorer nations but said it must nonetheless be considered.
"The price of oil goes up, many of the countries of the south are going to suffer the most, many of those poor countries who have no oil.
"We should be very careful about using this double-edged weapon because it may hurt us more than it hurts the other parties."
But for Sheikh Hamad of Qatar, using oil as a weapon in the Iraq crisis is a non-starter.
"I think all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council will agree not to use oil as a weapon," he said Monday.
"This is an international material being used by the whole world. As we are civilized countries, we should not think about oil as a weapon. We should use it to improve the relationship between us and the others."
Wednesday's summit will be preceded by informal discussions among OIC foreign ministers on Tuesday.
