Islamic summit descends into chaos

A summit of Muslim leaders from around the world degenerated into chaos today as an Iraqi official hurled insults at his Kuwaiti counterpart.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference was meeting in Qatar in a desperate bid to stave of a war in Iraq that they believe could destabilise the entire Middle East.

“Shut up you monkey,” Iraq’s Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri yelled at Kuwait’s Sheikh Mohammed after he briefly interrupted his speech. “A curse be upon your moustache (honour), you traitor.”

Kuwaiti Information Minister Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al-Ahmed leaped up, waving a small Kuwaiti flag that had been on the desk, and tried to get the chairman to give the floor to the head of his delegation.

But the chairman, the emir of Qatar, said “we are not here for such exchanges,” and moved on to next speaker, an Afghani.

He also admonished al-Douri, saying: “You started your speech with a verse from the Koran saying, ‘Thou shalt be united by the word of God.”’

Kuwait’s Sheikh Ahmed emerged from the meeting room saying: “The Iraqis always behave like this. But we will not walk out of the summit because of our respect for the leadership of Qatar, the host of the OIC.”

Al-Douri had been making a scathing speech against the United States when he was interrupted by an inaudible remark from Sheikh Mohammed.

The chaotic meeting was the third high level gathering in the region in a week aimed at avoiding a war.

Kuwait had earlier called on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to make “the ultimate sacrifice” by accepting asylum and going into exile to prevent a war.

“Kuwait calls on the Iraqi leadership to think in depth about offering the ultimate sacrifices,” Kuwait’s Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah told the summit.

In his opening remarks, Qatari leader Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani had appealed for unity, saying that while the Muslim world does not claim to hold the strategic decision over war and peace “we are certain that we can influence decisions.”

“We must be careful in all our moves that our efforts are focused on exhausting all peaceful means to solve this issue,” he said. “Any other way will create more crises, conflicts and suffering.”

Arab and Islamic nations are divided on whether it is possible to avoid a war if Saddam stays in power.

Qatar, which is hosting the summit as head of the OIC, has allowed the US to operate a command centre on its soil for a possible war against Iraq.

Iranian officials in Tehran yesterday put forward their own Iraqi peace proposal that urged the divided Iraqi opposition to reconcile with Saddam and called for elections supervised by the United Nations.

But some diplomats at the summit said privately that the Iranians did not send President Mohammad Khatami or Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi because initial response to the proposal was negative.

Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul also is taking part in today’s one-day summit. Turkish politicians have been haggling over whether Turkey should allow US troops to launch an attack from its territory or risk losing billions of pounds in aid and a say in Iraq’s future.