Ban to attend Baghdad Arab summit

UN chief Ban Ki-moon is to attend an Arab summit due to be held in Baghdad later this month, Iraqi deputy foreign minister Labid Abbawi told AFP on Wednesday. “Ban Ki-moon will join the summit. He gave us assurances and notified us directly that he was going to come,” Abbawi said. The March 29 gathering will be the first regional summit since the Arab Spring uprisings swept away veteran strongmen in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and brought long suppressed Islamist groups to the fore. It will also mark the first time that Baghdad hosts a regular summit of the Arab League since 1978, although Iraq was the venue for an extraordinary session in May 1990, just months before Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. The summit was originally due to be held in the Iraqi capital on the same date last year but was twice postponed in the face of the turmoil sweeping the region. Iraqi leaders have given repeated assurances that all necessary security arrangements are in place for the summit despite the frequent violence still rocking the country, which saw 150 people killed in February, according to official figures. Gulf Arab countries may not send their heads of state to the summit, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal warned on Sunday, to protest at what they say is interference in their affairs by some Shiite parties in Iraq’s governing coalition. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said late last month that neighbouring Syria would not be invited to the Baghdad summit, in accordance with the bloc’s decision last November to suspend the Damascus regime in protest at its deadly crackdown on dissent.