March 19, 2003 The Liberation Of Iraq, Iraq War - Website by Q Madp

Monday April 28, 2003

Staff Writer

JEDDAH, 28 April 2003 — US-led forces that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein must leave Iraq as soon as possible, the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) said yesterday. “Islamic efforts must unite to defend Iraq’s interests and ... insist on the need for the departure of foreign forces from Iraq as soon as possible,” Abdulwahed Belkeziz told the opening session of a meeting of senior employees of the 57-nation pan-Islamic body at its headquarters here.

“The Iraqi people must govern themselves ... Iraq’s natural resources belong to the Iraqi people alone, who are fully entitled to manage and exploit them according to their interests,” he said referring to the country’s oil wealth. Belkeziz said the United Nations should have “the central role in running Iraqi internal and external affairs in the transitional period, as well as a vital role in all arrangements pertaining to the exploitation of its natural resources.”

He stressed that OIC member states too should have a major input in “defending the rights of the Iraqi people.”