World nations to meet Iraq's neighbors in Egypt in May

The Iraqi government has agreed to hold a ministerial meeting between its neighboring countries and major world nations in Egypt in early May, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Saturday.

"The Iraqi government agreed to hold the ministerial meeting of Iraq neighboring countries, the five UN Security Council permanent members and the G8 (most industrialized nations) on May 3 and 4 in Egypt, probably in Sharm el-Sheikh," Zebari told reporters in a news conference.

Another international meeting for the International Compact with Iraq, which is a larger group, also would be held in Egypt back to back to the first meeting.

"It would be two separate meetings, but the aim of the Compact meeting is to finalize and to sign the document that the international community has pledged support for Iraq," Zebari said.

The meeting in Egypt would aim to engage Iraq's Arab neighbors and the international community constructively in helping the Iraqi government restore stability and reconstruction, the Iraqi foreign minister added.

"We are suffering from a security problem and we ask our neighbors to help us and cooperate with us," Zebari said.

Zebari hoped that the meeting in Egypt will lead to some dialogue between those regional countries and international nationals which would create positive environment in the area that will be helpful for the Iraqi government efforts to deal with security problems.

"There may be opportunities for breaking the ice, which would be helpful to my country because we need a conducive, supportive regional environment for us to succeed," he added.

On March 10, an ambassador-level meeting was held in Baghdad to discuss the security situation in Iraq, in which American officials held rare direct talks with their foes Iranian and Syrian officials.

Source: Xinhua