GCC decides to boycott Saddam

CAIRO: Member states of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will boycott any summit in which representatives of the Iraqi leadership are participating, Egyptian press reports said today. Participation by Iraqi representatives in any conference, and thus also the Arab foreign ministers meeting planned for January 24, would turn it into an “automatic mistake”, the reports said. The GCC stance appeared to further harden the frontlines between the Gulf countries and Iraq a week ahead of the planned Arab League conference, analysts said. Due to the political conflicts and the media campaign emanating from Iraq, neither a special summit of Arab heads of state and government nor a ministerial meeting with “Saddam Hussein and his group” could be a success, the press reports said.