People's Democracy

Entire World To US: ‘No War With Iraq’

LONDON, BERLIN, JOHANNESBURG and GABORONE—No sooner had Donald Rumsfeld declared that the international community would back an eventual US attack on Iraq than the world begged to differ.

"When our country does make the right judgments, the right decisions, then other countries do cooperate and participate," the US defence secretary said in California on August 27.

Speaking a day after US vice president Dick Cheney had contended that the risk of inaction on Iraq was "far greater" than the risk of action, Rumsfeld said president George W Bush had not yet chosen to launch an invasion, but predicted that any such decision would elicit broad international backing.

No way, chorused politicians from Beijing to Berlin.

"Whether Saddam Hussein remains or is removed from power is up to the Iraqi people," said Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Saud al-Faisal, whose country was the main launchpad for the US-led forces that ended Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait in 1991.

"It has never been shown in history... that anybody removed from the outside and another person put in instead has made for the stability of the region," he told the BBC.

"What makes us so gullible as to think we know what is better for the Iraqi people than the Iraqi people themselves?"

Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit said his country, a NATO member whose facilities Washington would certainly covet in the event of war, had left the Americans in no doubt about its misgivings about any US-led campaign to topple Saddam.

"We have used every opportunity to tell our friends in the US administration we are opposed to military action against Iraq," Ecevit told a news conference.

In Europe, dissenting voices rose in Germany and Britain, traditionally among America’s staunchest NATO allies. Germany’s conservative opposition unexpectedly reversed course and issued a warning to the United States against launching a military strike on Iraq without a UN mandate.

Edmund Stoiber, conservative candidate for chancellor in the September 22 election, made the about-face when he endorsed anti-war warnings from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Stoiber said Cheney’s remarks about a pre-emptive strike against Iraq prompted him to issue his warning against unilateral US moves. "The monopoly on the decision and action in this question lies with the United Nations," Stoiber said.

Asked in a television interview about a warning by vice president Dick Cheney against any delay in removing Saddam, Schroeder reiterated that Germany will not take part in such action.

German defense minister Peter Struck insisted there is still no evidence that Iraq is sheltering international terrorists or has obtained nuclear weapons. "Iraq is no threat to us," he said at a news conference on August 27.

British prime minister Tony Blair is facing a major revolt within his ruling Labour Party over his support for Bush’s threats of action against Iraq, according to a new opinion poll.

The ICM poll published in Guardian newspaper on August 28 showed that 52 percent of Labour supporters believed Britain should not support any military action against Iraq.

China, a permanent UN Security Council member, said Iraq should implement UN resolutions, but force was not the answer.

"Using force or threats of force is unhelpful in solving the Iraq issue and will increase regional instability and tensions," foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan Tang was quoted as saying in a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Naji Sabri in Beijing.

In a clear message to Washington, he added that Beijing was "against any use of force or threats to use force."

Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov raised the specter of a Moscow veto in the UN Security Council over strikes on Iraq as he again warned Washington against launching a military assault to unseat Saddam Hussein's regime.

Flanked by his Iraqi counterpart Naji Sabri following a 15-minute one-on-one talks in Russian foreign ministry guests' mansion, the Russian foreign minister accused Washington of harbouring political motives for ousting Saddam.

Earlier, Ivanov was quoted as saying in a speech before Russian diplomats that Moscow supported "pre-emptive measures" against global terrorism, but only under UN approval.

In Tokyo, Taku Yamasaki, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Tokyo had a duty as an ally to oppose Washington.

"If the US attacks alone it will produce distrust of the United States throughout the world. As an ally, we should oppose this," Yamasaki was quoted as saying.

Syrian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa Mero said his country, along with Iraq and all Arabs, would view any US strike as part of "policies that seek more US hegemony and to inflict harm not just on the people of Iraq but the Arab nation as a whole," Syria’s state media reported.

In Iran, president Mohammad Khatami urged an "arrogant" Washington to drop its hostility and improve ties with Iran, saying his country would defend itself if it too came under threat.

"We hope Iraq will not be attacked, and if this occurs we hope that (America) will not try its luck by attacking other countries and realise that American public opinion will not tolerate this policy for very long," Khatami said.

A US diplomat in Pakistan told The Frontier Post that US is determined to remove Saddam Hussein from power as the Iraqi people are fed up of his oppressive policies and Iran could be the next country as the people there want to live in freedom.

UN secretary-general Kofi Annan urged the United States to resist attacking Iraq. On Tuesday, Annan said he favored ongoing dialogue with Saddam’s government and that if Washington decides to attack Iraq it would not reflect UN policy.

"The UN is not agitating for military action" against Iraq, Annan told a news conference after talks with Botswana’s President Festus Mogae.

(From Reuters and AP reports of 28 August 2002)