By Xinhua
Cairo : A four-way summit meeting involving leaders of Egypt, Iraq, Sudan and Yemen was held here Sunday to tackle pressing Arab issues ahead of an upcoming U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference.
At the summit meeting, or a working lunch, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his Iraqi, Sudanese and Yemeni counterparts, Jalal Talabani, Omer al-Bashir and Ali Abdullah Saleh, discussed the overall Arab situation and the latest developments in the region, Egyptian presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad told reporters.
The summit focused on the situation in Iraq, Sudan and the U.S.-host Mideast peace conference to be held in the last week of November in Annapolis, Maryland, Awad said.
According to the spokesman, President Mubarak attaches great attention to the success of political process in Iraq in a way that would stop the bloodshed and restore the war-torn country’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.
Mubarak pointed out that the main condition for the success of the political process is to steer clear of all sectarian conflicts, as there is no difference between Arabs and Kurds or Shia and Sunni Muslim.
Meanwhile, the leaders called on the Iraqi and Turkish sides to exercise self-restraint so as not to give the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) the chance to pit the two neighboring states against each other.
Turkey has been considering a cross-border incursion into northern Iraq after PKK attacks over the past few weeks have left 47 civilians and soldiers dead, but so far it is still trying on diplomatic fronts and holding back from major military actions.
Earlier on Sunday, Mubarak met with Bashir on the latest developments in Sudan and the two presidents discuss efforts exerted to achieve peace in Darfur and the implementation of the peace agreement.
Egypt hopes the comprehensive peace agreement will be applied in good faith as crisis between the country’s north and south is on the way of a breakthrough.
It should be widened to involve a similar peace in the Sudanese western region of Darfur and another with the Eastern Front to achieve a comprehensive peace and unity in Sudan, Egypt urges.
As for the Mideast peace conference, the summit held that the conference will not succeed if it returns to the roadmap for peace that was launched in 2003, which has since failed to make any progress on the road to peace.
The leaders call for a joint political document by Palestinians and Israelis with good intentions to provide a strong basis upon which the Annapolis conference could be launched as a framework for Palestinian-Israeli talks and within a specific time frame so as not to continue to negotiate for ever.
In order to make Annapolis conference a success, diplomatic coordination is still under way, specially among Arab nations.
President Mubarak met with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Sunday for the second time after their talks on Saturday.
He is also expected to meet Jordanian King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on developments on Mideast peace process ahead of the Annapolis conference.
In this regard, visiting European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is also due to meet with Abbas in Cairo on Sunday and with Egyptian officials on Monday.
Egypt is seeking to unify Arab ranks ahead of the Mideast peace conference, which is expected to include Israel, the Palestinian National Authority and some of their Arab neighbors to help restart the stalled Mideast peace talks, said media reports.