KUWAIT: A summit of Muslim leaders degenerated into chaos yesterday as the number two in the Iraqi regime hurled insults at a Kuwaiti sheikh.
The 56-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference was meeting in Qatar in a desperate attempt to agree a common position and stave off a war in Iraq, which they believe could destabilise the entire Middle East.
"Shut up you monkey," Iraq's Mr Izzat Ibrahim yelled at Kuwait's Sheikh Mohammed after he interrupted his speech briefly. "A curse be upon your moustache, you traitor," he said.
Mr Ibrahim, the second-in-command of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, told the OIC it should take "concrete steps to support Iraq against this tyrant" - President Bush.
"There should be a point-blank refusal of any aggression and no help should be given to this enemy . . . We hope Islamic nations can face the challenge that is before them," he said.
All of Islam would be the victim of "the reckless and foolish United States . . . In the face of this bitter reality, we must rally our forces and the foremost condition for our success is joint Muslim action . . . we must not allow anyone to break our ranks or religion will be wiped out and our territories placed under foreign control."
The Kuwaiti Information Minister, Sheikh Ahmed Fahd Al-Ahmed, leapt up, waving a Kuwaiti flag, and tried to get the chairman to give the floor to the head of his delegation, calling Mr Ibrahim "an infidel and a charlatan". At this point Mr Ibrahim lost his cool, telling him to shut up. "You are addressing Iraq. You are insolent. You are a traitor to the Islamic nation," he said. But the chairman, the emir of Qatar, said: "We are not here for such exchanges."
Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmed, emerging from the meeting, said: "The Iraqis always behave like this. But we will not walk out of the summit because of our respect for the leadership of Qatar, the host of the OIC."
- (AFP/Reuters)