CAIRO - Javier Solana, the high representative of the European Union (EU) for common foreign and security policy, said on Wednesday that neighboring countries had important responsibilities in efforts to ensure stability in Iraq, and their cooperation was necessary to reach this end.
In an interview with the A.A correspondent, Solana, who is currently in Egyptian capital Cairo under his tour to Middle Eastern countries, said that he would attend only to a luncheon offered for the participants of the Regional Initiative on Iraq.
Recalling that he had a chance to meet Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in Brussels last week, Solana said, ''it seems to me that the most important thing now is to see how we can guarantee, all of us together, the stability and the security of Iraq so that the process of recuperation of the sovereignty by the Iraqi people is done according to the calendar.''
Upon a question on responsibilities of the international community about Iraq, Solana said that Europe had been trying to help the Iraqi people to stabilize the country and re-establish law and order.
Stressing that the neighboring countries had some responsibilities and they should cooperation this regard, Solana added that other countries, which were not neighbors of Iraq like the EU-member states, had also some responsibilities, but he did not elaborate.
(UK-ULG) 21.07.2004