Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said his country was ready to mobilize an international Muslim force to rehabilitate war-torn Iraq.
"We are prepared to rally support among the Organisation of the Islamic Conference [OIC] to rebuild Iraq and strengthen its institutions of governance and its economic system," Abdullah said late Monday after talks with US President George W. Bush in the Oval Office.
Abdullah, chairman of the 57-member OIC, said the world would risk another failure in nation-building if Iraq was left in the cold at this juncture, rendering the region politically unstable and economically stagnant.
"We should no longer stand on the sidelines and merely watch Iraq struggle to find its feet after years of dictatorship and a recent invasion," he said at a dinner in Washington hosted by the US-ASEAN Business Council.
Malaysia, for its part, was ready to send a "sizeable" medical team to Iraq and participate in the reconstruction of Iraq, Abdullah said.
He warned that if the reconstruction of Iraq failed, the entire Muslim world would blame the US-led invasion for setting off a chain of events that led to sustained misery for ordinary Iraqis and a clash between the West and the Muslim world.
Abdullah pointed out that the Muslim world still needed some demonstration of good faith from the US in addressing the root causes of terrorism, in particular the unresolved question of Palestine.
He said he suggested and Bush agreed that a "capacity-building" program be undertaken in poor Muslim countries as part of efforts to demonstrate such good faith.
Bush said: "We talked about Iraq, and I told him I was pleased with the progress being made in Iraq, and the prime minister had some helpful suggestions.
"So, all in all, it's been a very constructive meeting," Bush said.
Abdullah, who also heads the 116-nation Non-Aligned Movement of developing states, called for bridging "the great divide" between the Muslim world and the West, saying efforts should go beyond "elite diplomacy."
He declared that bilateral ties between Malaysia and the US were "very strong" despite Kuala Lumpur's opposition to the war in Iraq.
"You cannot judge our bilateral relations simply on the basis of what you hear, that we may have some differences on Iraq or on Palestine," he said.
"The foundation of the bilateral relations has remained strong all the time," he said.
This is the first visit to the US by Abdullah, who took over last October from retiring premier Mahathir Mohamad, a vociferous critic of Bush's foreign policies.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS