The Arab League-affiliated Arab Ministerial Committee for Discussion of the Iraqi Issue began a meeting here today. At the beginning of the meeting, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal delivered a speech in which he welcomed all in their second country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and thanked them for their immediate response to hold this ministerial meeting which was formed under the umbrella of the Arab League to set a specific strategy to deal with the situation in Iraq. He said that Iraq's participation in this meeting is very important because the purpose of this meeting is to help our brothers in Iraq to overcome the current situation in line with Iraqis' will to maintain the great entity of Iraq and protect the interests of its people." He added, "We in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia follow with deep interest and concern developments of the situation in Iraq which is passing through an extremely delicate stage which requires from all of us concerted efforts in a framework of frankness and transparency and on the basis of our deep concern for the present and future Iraq and unity of our goals which call for an independent and unified Iraq enjoying peace, stability and prosperity and lives in peace with its neighbors." --more 2246 Local Time 1946 GMT
