BAGHDAD: Arab foreign ministers met Wednesday in Baghdad to debate a draft resolution calling on Damascus to end violence and hold talks with the opposition, on the eve of a landmark summit in Iraq.
 
Twelve foreign ministers arrived in the Iraqi capital for the talks, which were attended by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and were to tackle events in the Palestinian territories, Yemen and Somalia, but have centered around neighboring Syria.
 
“Our brothers in Syria are continuing to suffer from the regime there,” Libyan Foreign Minister Ashur bin Khayyal said, opening the meeting held in the Jerusalem room of the former Republican Palace in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.
 
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said his country rejects foreign intervention in Syria, but supports the rights of Syrians to determine their future. “We reject any outside interference in the Syrian crisis,” Zebari told the meeting.
 
“We support the legitimate ambitions of the Syrian people for freedom and democracy and their right to determine their future and choose its rulers,” he said. “And we insist on a political solution.”
 
After opening remarks, the session was closed to the media.
 
Syria, a member of the 22-member Arab League, was not invited to the summit and has been suspended from the pan-Arab body.
 
Damascus said Wednesday that it would reject any initiative from the Arab League.
 
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told journalists that Iraq was proposing the Syrian authorities and opposition choose a consensus figure to whom the power to negotiate internally and externally would be transferred.
 
The proposal suggests that “the powers be transferred to someone the opposition and the authorities in Syria think can negotiate and manage a mature dialogue,” Dabbagh said.
 
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby earlier said “the Syrian subject will have a significant place in discussions” between foreign ministers.
 
“I think that the ministers’ meeting ... and the Arab summit will support” a six-point plan put forward by U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan and reportedly accepted by Damascus Tuesday, Elaraby said.
 
A draft resolution to be debated in Baghdad urges the “Syrian government and all opposition factions to deal positively with the envoy [Annan] by starting serious national dialogue,” according to a copy of the text obtained by AFP.
 
The draft also says that “the Syrian government should immediately stop all actions of violence and killing, protect Syrian civilians and guarantee the freedom of peaceful demonstrations for achieving the demands of the Syrian people.”
 
Zebari has said he expects a resolution on Syria, but added he did not think Arab leaders would call on Assad to step down, saying the League will steer clear of the strong moves advocated by Qatar and Saudi Arabia
 
Calls – largely from Gulf states – for Assad to quit and discussions of arming his foes have proved sharply divisive issues for Arab states.
 
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said his country was reducing its representation at the Arab Summit to a minimum to send a “message” to Iraq’s leadership.
 
Qatar “is not boycotting the summit, as much as it is sending a message to the brothers in Iraq,” he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera, excerpts of which were posted Wednesday on the network’s website.
 
The premier said he would have wanted the level of representation to be higher “but we will sit with them in the future and talk.” He did not elaborate.
 
Qatar is represented at the summit by its ambassador to the Cairo-based Arab League, Saif bin Muqaddam.
 
Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah was late Wednesday the only head of state from the Gulf expected to attend the summit.
 
In Kuwait on his way to attend the summit, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged Assad to “immediately” implement Annan’s plan. “I urge President Assad to put commitments into immediate effect. There is no time to waste,” he said.
 
The fallout from other Arab uprisings – which toppled dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and put pressure for reform on other autocratic regimes in the region – are also being discussed in the three days of talks in Iraq.
 
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, left Wednesday for the Arab League summit in Baghdad, official radio reported.
 
“Bashir left Khartoum for Baghdad, heading the country’s delegation in the Arab League summit,” the state-run Radio Omdurman said.
 
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s office had announced Sunday that Bashir would attend the meeting, but until Wednesday’s radio report there had been no official comment about the trip within Sudan.
 
Iraq is not a signatory to the ICC’s founding Rome Statute, according to a copy of the treaty posted on the U.N.’s website.
 
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry has said on its website that “the protection of President Bashir is guaranteed one hundred percent,” adding that the same applied to all summit participants. More than 100,000 members of Iraq’s forces are providing security in Baghdad.