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Morocco Proposes ‘Last Chance’ Meeting : Diplomacy: But the Iraqi government rejects King Hassan’s suggestion unless the Palestinian issue is also on the agenda.

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From Times Wire Services

King Hassan II of Morocco offered Sunday to hold an emergency “last chance” meeting of Arab leaders on the Persian Gulf crisis.

In Baghdad, Iraq said it would attend a proposed Arab summit if the agenda included the Palestinian question and if it was consulted on the time and place.

Iraq’s ruling Revolutionary Command Council, led by Saddam Hussein, went into emergency session to discuss the matter, an official statement read on state television said.

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In a separate interview broadcast in London on Sunday, Hussein repeated his call for an international dialogue on the crisis and said he does not think the world is united against him.

He acknowledged that the major powers and “a number of countries” are lined up against Iraq, “but to say that the world is unified against Iraq is indeed not a correct thing to say.”

“This is not just our impression,” he said in the Saturday interview with Britain’s Independent Television News. “In the statements of the U.S. and Britain, they themselves are voicing their concern that the unity--so-called unity against Iraq--is perhaps . . . suffering from a split.”

Asked if Iraq was ready to leave Kuwait, Hussein said: “We are ready to enter into deep dialogue as to the requirements for security in our region. . . .

“If all parties concerned . . . sat around one table, we are confident that these parties will reach serious and deep solutions to all the issues, in the forefront of which will be the Palestinian issue.”

In its statement about the possible Arab summit, Hussein’s government also suggested that it would not allow certain topics to be discussed at the gathering, if it takes place.

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“The proposed summit should not be part of efforts to prepare the political theater as a cover for American aggression against Iraq and the Arab nation,” the Iraqi statement said.

Unlike an Aug. 10 summit in Egypt, where 12 of 21 Arab League members voted to send troops to Saudi Arabia, any new summit must not be a “cover for bringing in U.S. invasion forces,” the Iraqi statement said.

In calling for an Arab summit, Hassan suggested meeting in a week in the Moroccan capital of Rabat, but the Iraqi response appeared to reject this in favor of a more neutral site.

The Moroccan king again criticized Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait.

“Iraq cannot erase in one stroke the Kuwaiti state to make it one of its provinces,” he said. “The Kuwaiti people cannot lose day by day their identity to become Iraqi.”

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