Kuala Lumpur, Aug 08: Iraq will not be invited to participate in a major meeting of Islamic countries in October because it is still under occupation by US-led forces, host nation Malaysia said today. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Iraq would not be allowed to participate in the Organization of Islamic Conference, the Muslim world's largest grouping, until its people were "ruled by their own regime and not under occupation." Iraq has belonged to the 57-member group since 1976 and representatives of Saddam Hussein's regime regularly attended OIC meetings before it was toppled by US-led forces earlier this year. "They are not expelled but there is no representative" from Iraq acceptable to the OIC, Syed Hamid was quoted as saying by the a news agency, Bernama.
OIC leaders are scheduled to gather at Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital, for an Oct 16-18 summit to be chaired by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a strong critic of the invasion of Iraq.
The OIC's exclusion of Iraq follows a similar stand by the 22-member Arab League, which shut out the US-appointed Iraqi governing council from its meeting in Cairo earlier this week.
Bureau Report