Iraq’s Allies Confer in Baghdad
King Hussein of Jordan flew to Baghdad on Tuesday to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and Yemeni Vice President Ali Salim Bidh while moving to mend fences with anti-Iraq Saudi Arabia.
Jordan and Yemen are Iraq’s allies and the meeting, in advance of planned Iraqi-U.S. talks, was held to try to avert war in the Persian Gulf, officials said.
The official Iraqi News Agency said the four leaders welcomed the planned Iraqi-U.S. talks “and stressed their conviction that it is necessary to work at the Arab and international levels to solve all the region’s problems, especially the Palestinian question.”
At the same time, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria--in the forefront of Arab opposition to Iraq--discussed ways to contain the crisis before the Jan. 15 U.N. deadline for Iraq to leave Kuwait.
In a joint statement issued after two days of talks, they urged Iraq to adhere to U.N. resolutions calling for the withdrawal of its troops and condemned the reportedly brutal conduct of Iraqi occupational forces in Kuwait.
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