BANGKOK: Ten Arab nations have threatened to boycott the Beijing Asian Games unless Iraq is barred from the event, a senior official of the Olympic Council for Asia (OCA) said.
Mr Santiparp Techavanija, Oca’s treasurer, said Arab nations agreed at a recent meeting in Saudi Arabia to urge the International Olympic Committee and the OCA to suspend Iraq from participating in international sport activities.
The Asian Games is the games of Asia,” he said “If we found a naughty boy, we should get rid of him to rescue the games.”
He declined to name the 10 Arab nations planning the boycott, although he said Yemen and Jordan were not among them and discounted a Lebanese denial that it would participate.
Responding to a statement by Lebanese embassy officials in Beijing who denied their country would boycott the Asian Games, he said the denial could be seen as a diplomatic move.
“The trend is likely that the 10 Arab nations will do so (join the boycott), ‘he said,
Mr Santiparp said a decision by the OCA to boycott the Asian Games would give China the right to bar Iraq.
”Now it is difficult for China to stop Iraq because there is no rule allowing the host to do it,” he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 21, 1990
