CAIRO, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Arab and Muslim diplomats said seven Muslim countries may form an alliance amid growing Shiite power in the Middle East.
Pakistan invited foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia to Islamabad next Sunday to discuss issues of Muslim concern, including Palestine.
Ministers from the predominantly Sunni countries will also discuss holding a summit for the states in Mecca later on to unify their positions on what may be seen as Shiite expansion in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran.
Shiite-dominated Iran has not been invited to the meeting, nor has Syria, a close ally of Tehran which is predominantly Sunni but is ruled by the Alawites.
Egyptian newspapers Wednesday quoted Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul Ghait as saying the meeting will discuss "how the Muslim region can cope with all its regional problems and pressures between each other and with the Western world."
Diplomats said the seven nations will seek to market the Saudi accord reached between rival Palestinian Hamas and Fatah as a prelude to resolve the rest of the region's problems, starting with Iraq, Lebanon and the Iranian nuclear crisis.
But one diplomat in Cairo told United Press International the summit will form an alliance of the major Muslim Sunni states to confront a possible expansion of Iranian influence from Iraq and Lebanon to the rest of the region.
"It will definitely be an alliance whose aim is to stand against Iranian ambitions and growing Shiite influence in some countries," said he said.
