CAIRO - Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul met on Monday with Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa.
Gul is currently paying an official visit to Egypt prior to the meeting of foreign ministers of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul between 14 and 16, 2004.
Following the meeting, Gul attended luncheon hosted by Mussa and they held a joint press conference.
Mussa said that they discussed regional and international issues in the meeting and noted that they had a beneficial meeting on Iraq, Palestine and Cyprus issues.
Gul stated that he had a beneficial meeting with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and informed Mubarak about Cyprus issue.
Noting that meeting of foreign ministers of OIC was also brought onto the agenda in the meeting, Gul recalled that election of OIC secretary general would be held in the meeting. ''I have asked for support to our candidate (for OIC secretary general) Turkish citizen Ekmelettin Ihsanoglu who was born in Egypt. I am very pleased with my meeting with Mubarak,'' he stated.
Gul said that Mussa and he discussed Cyprus, Iraq and Palestine issues.
Replying to a question on seizure of weapons in a container at Ambarli Customs in Istanbul, Gul said that they touched on the issue in the meeting and noted that but this issue was an unimportant and technical issue. Stressing that this issue should not be exaggerated, he said that they expected the issue to be solved soon.
When a reporter said that there were some claims that Turkish troops were deployed to border between Turkey and Iraq, Gul said that he did not hear such a thing and added that those claims were not accurate.
When a reporter asked what Turkey's view was on the Greater Middle East Initiative and if representative offices would be opened in Turkey under this initiative, Gul said that it was not possible for Turkey to have a role in such an issue and noted that they wanted Islamic countries to make reforms with their own initiative in favor of the geography and people. He added that they were not concerned with projects of others.
(EÖ-AÖ) 07.06.2004