Global Policy Forum

Arab envoys at the United Nations demanded on Monday an urgent session of the U.N. Security Council to press for a quick halt to the war in Iraq, as requested by their foreign ministers meeting in Cairo.

The current rotating chairman of the Arab group of 22 countries at the United Nations is Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, who intends to deliver a letter to the council on Monday evening requesting the meeting, Arab diplomats said.

``We have decided as the Arab group, under instructions from the Arab League in Cairo, to ask for an emergency meeting of the Security Council,'' Aldouri told reporters after the group's closed-door meeting in a U.N. basement conference room.

The Arab League's U.N. envoy, Yahya Mahmassani, said it was ``vital'' the meeting take place as soon as possible.

Syria's U.N. ambassador, Mikhail Wehbe, said the group intended to ask the 15-nation council to adopt a resolution demanding an immediate end to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The resolution would also demand the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraqi soil and the observance of Iraqi territorial integrity.

Any nation can ask for a meeting of the council but it is up the 15 members themselves to decide whether to hold it. But a resolution demanding an end to the U.S.-led attack on Iraq would appear to have virtually no chance of approval. Both the United States and Britain have veto power in the council.

Arab diplomats said that during their meeting, only Kuwait opposed the action, as it had in Cairo.

The appeal for an emergency council session was first voiced at the close of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo earlier in the day, which ended in adoption of a resolution condemning the war against Iraq. ``We call on all forces to withdraw from Iraq and to put an end to this attack, to this assault,'' Arab League chief Amr Moussa told reporters in Cairo after the one-day meeting.

The resolution also reiterated an earlier Arab summit declaration that the group's members, some of which are now hosting U.S. forces, should ``refrain from participating'' in the attack.

The cautious statement reflected the deep rifts among the Arab League's members on the Iraq issue. Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, who attended the talks, said the decisions represented the very least Arabs could offer.

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