Iran’s Boycott Frustrates Hopes at Islamic Conference

A conference of heads of state representing 1 billion Muslims opened here Monday, but a boycott by Iran frustrated hopes of settling the gathering’s most pressing problem--the long-running Persian Gulf War.

About 21 heads of state from the 46-member Organization of the Islamic Conference turned up for the meeting, including such Arab archenemies as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Syria’s Hafez Assad.

Kuwait unveiled a $400-million conference center for the three-day summit talks and surrounded the Italian marble building with hundreds of armed troops and armored personnel carriers, all decked out in blue and black designer camouflage.

The Kuwaiti government went ahead with the meeting despite heavy fighting that has been raging between Iran and Iraq for two weeks less than 100 miles away near Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.

Underground Threats

The Kuwaitis have also been threatened with attacks by a number of underground groups. At least three different acts of sabotage were reported in the last week.

By all accounts, the most burning issue before the Islamic leaders--who last met in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1984--is an attempt to resolve the Iran-Iraq War, which has been under way for more than six years.

Any hope of mediating the conflict at the summit collapsed, however, when Iran failed to appear for the meeting despite pleas from the Kuwaiti hosts.

The Iranians have maintained that Kuwait, as an ally of Iraq, is an inappropriate choice to host a conference of Muslims. They have made it clear that their recent military push on Basra was an attempt to intimidate Kuwait into canceling the summit.

Tried to Get Them

“We tried hard to get them to come,” said Kuwait’s foreign minister, Sheik Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah. “We would have wished for the two parties to be here so we could reach a solution to this war.”

In the end, foreign ministers of the conference, who met for four days to craft an agenda before the leaders arrived, agreed on a tepid resolution calling on Iran and Iraq to resolve their disputes by peaceful means and calling on Iran to observe the resolution.

With Iran absent, its interests will be represented at the meeting by Syria, which has been one of non-Arab Iran’s two Arab supporters in the war. Diplomats also believe that such non-Arab delegations as Pakistan’s will ensure that whatever resolution is adopted on the issue of the war, it will be even-handed.

According to Arab officials and Western diplomats, the only real progress at the conference is expected to take place outside the ornate conference hall, in the many bilateral meetings between the heads of state.

Key Leaders Attend

Among the most important developments, according to the officials, was the presence here of Egypt’s Mubarak and Syria’s Assad.

This is the first time an Egyptian leader has been received officially by fellow Arab leaders since Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

Libya’s Col. Moammar Kadafi failed to show up for the meeting, saying Mubarak’s presence made a mockery of Islamic unity.

In the other significant meeting, Jordan’s King Hussein conferred for more than half an hour Monday with Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

It was the first Hussein-Arafat meeting since last February, when the king broke off political coordination with the PLO when Arafat again refused to accept U.N. Security Council resolutions guaranteeing Israel’s right to exist.

Terms Still the Same

Jordanian officials had said before the conference that Hussein’s terms for resuming the peace process in tandem with the PLO had not changed, so that Arafat would have to publicly accept the U.N. resolutions in order to be invited back to Amman.

In other pre-conference developments, the foreign ministers agreed to consider two resolutions on terrorism.

A Kuwaiti resolution condemning terrorism in all forms was unanimously adopted and sent on to the heads of state.

A Syrian proposal for an international conference under U.N. auspices to consider terrorism was also accepted for consideration.

‘State-Sponsored Terrorism’

The Syrians want to discuss “state-sponsored terrorism” which is Damascus’ shorthand for condemning the United States and Israel.

In recent months, the United States has mounted a major propaganda offensive accusing Syria of supporting terrorism, while Syria accuses Washington of terrorism in mounting last April’s attacks on Libya.

Arafat is also expected to condemn Syria for supporting the Shia Muslim militia Amal in the current fighting around Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Kuwaiti officials regard it as a feather in their cap that Assad agreed to attend at all. One official said Kuwait offered the economically beleaguered Syrians financial assistance if their president would attend. Diplomats said Assad may also have feared that by not coming, he would have left the conference to his rival, Mubarak.

The foreign ministers adopted resolutions on the fighting between Chad and Libya, calling on the two parties to settle their “territorial conflict” without recourse to force. The resolution, which is expected to be adopted, was described as a watered-down compromise.

The full conference is also expected to adopt a resolution encouraging peace talks between the Afghanistan government and Muslim rebel groups. Afghanistan was expelled from the Islamic Conference after Soviet troops invaded in 1979 to prop up a Moscow-supported government.