In the presence of the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, and the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Hammoud, current president of the Arab League, a meeting of the EU’s Council of general affairs and external relations (CGA) was held in Brussels on Monday, 24 February. The meeting was largely dedicated to the Iraqi crisis. Greek Foreign Minister and current President of the CGA, Giorgos Papandreou, declared that the “European Union and the Arab League, following an exchange of views on the question, intend to send a clear message to Saddam Hussein, urging the need to comply with Resolution 1441 of the United Nations”. Papandreou confirmed the position expressed by the EU at the extraordinary Summit last week, reiterating that “war is not inevitable, but can only be a solution of last resort”. In a passage of the Council’s conclusions, the Fifteen ask the UN to grant “further, though not unlimited, time” to the inspectors, and emphasize that only the UNO can be the “driving force for the peaceful solution of the crisis”.
