Special Report: Tension accelerates in Iraq

   BAGHDAD, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's government has decided not to participate in a meeting of Arab foreign ministers due in Cairo, protesting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's comments on Shiite Muslims, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said on Tuesday. "The Iraqi cabinet decided in its meeting today not to participate in the Wednesday Arab foreign ministers in Cairo," Jaafari told reporters, referring to Mubarak's comments in an interview with the pan-Arab al-Arabiya television.

    Jaafari said that Foreign Minister Hoshiar al-Zibari would not take part in the Cairo meeting as long as the Egyptians have not provided a satisfactory explanation for the comments. The prime minister, a Shiite, said that Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League "asked me to differentiate between the course of Iraq-Arab and Iraq-Egypt," asserting that here fused to accept Moussa's explanation as reaction of Shiites is heating up.

    "We will not let anyone to offend any component of the Iraq ipeople," he said, adding "but we are keen to let the door ajar to treat with such issues."

    In an interview aired on Saturday, Mubarak said Shiites in Iraq and in the Middle East are more loyal to Iran than to their own countries and that a civil war has almost started in Iraq. On the ground, Shiite politicians failed Tuesday to break the deadlock over candidacy for premiership, thus blocking formation of a new government.

    The Shiite Alliance is expected to make a final decision on the matter after the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) formed a committee on Sunday to discuss the fate of embattled Jaafari. Jaafari, who was narrowly selected as the UIA's candidate for premier on Feb. 12, is facing unyielding rejection from members within the Shiite alliance as well as from Kurdish, Sunni and secular political parliamentary blocs, which call for withdrawing his candidacy to end the deadlock.

    Sunni and Kurdish political leaders have accused Jaafari offailing to deal with sectarian violence which escalated after the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra on Feb. 22.

    Jaafari, backed by his own Dawa party and Sadr faction, refused to step down, but said he is ready to abandon his candidacy if the parliament asks him to do so. Enditem