- LONDON (Reuters) - Renewed
U.S. talk of war to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein drew defiance from
Baghdad on Tuesday and a warning from Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak that
any such attack could plunge the Middle East into chaos.
-
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- U.S. warplanes attacked a radar site in northern Iraq
and an air defense command facility in the south after what the U.S. military
called hostile acts against U.S. and British jets patrolling two no-fly
zones in Iraqi airspace.
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- The allied planes struck as Arab leaders digested Monday's
call from U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney for pre-emptive action against
Iraq, saying Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction posed a mortal danger
to the United States.
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- "We could not care less about the threats that are
out there. Iraq has a long history with these threats and such despotism,"
Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan told reporters in Syria after
meeting President Bashar al-Assad.
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- In Baghdad, President Saddam Hussein told Qatar's foreign
minister that a U.S. assault on Iraq would be an attack on "all the
Arab nation," the official Iraqi News Agency reported.
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- Saddam said Iraq had implemented all its obligations
under U.N. Security Council resolutions and accused the world body of failing
to reciprocate by lifting crippling sanctions imposed 12 years ago for
Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
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- "If there is a genuine desire to find a solution,
it has to be based on international legitimacy, international law and the
U.N. charter...and has to include implementing commitments by all parties,"
the Iraqi leader added.
-
- Iraq has refused to allow U.N. weapons inspectors into
the country since a U.S.-British bombing campaign in December 1999.
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- U.S. fears that Iraq is developing doomsday weapons and
might turn them over to terrorists increased after the September 11 attacks
on U.S. cities, which killed around 3,000 people.
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- ARAB DISMAY
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- But Cheney's remarks caused fresh alarm among Washington's
Arab allies, which strongly supported the U.S.-led coalition that drove
Iraqi troops from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.
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- "Striking Iraq is something that could have repercussions
and post-strike developments. We fear chaos happening in the region,"
Egypt's Mubarak told a group of students, adding there was "no need"
to attack the sanctions-hit Arab country.
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- Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin
Jabr al-Thani said he was visiting Baghdad to avert a "catastrophe,"
in clear reference to U.S. threats to oust Saddam by force.
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- Qatar, which hosts a big U.S. airbase that is now being
upgraded, has joined other Arab countries in opposing any U.S. attack on
Iraq. "We are of course against any military action," al-Thani
told reporters Monday.
-
- Saudi Arabia, whose domestic and foreign policies have
come under sometimes hostile scrutiny in the United States since the September
11 attacks, also opposes any attack on Iraq.
-
- President Bush pledged in a meeting with the Saudi ambassador
Tuesday to consult with Saudi Arabia and other countries as he approaches
a decision on military action.
-
- "On the topic of Iraq, the president stressed that
he has made no decisions, that he will continue to engage in consultations
with Saudi Arabia and other nations about steps in the Middle East, steps
in Iraq," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said after Bush held
an hour-long meeting at his Texas ranch with ambassador Prince Bandar bin
Sultan.
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- FEELINGS RUN HIGH
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- Anti-American feeling is high across the Arab world because
of U.S. support for Israel as it tries to crush the Palestinian uprising
against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
-
- "(Cheney's) position can only express the depth
of rancor and hatred for the Arab and Muslim nations," said Ramadan,
urging Arabs to close ranks in response. "Public opinion increasingly
rejects the dominance of American despotism."
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- Ramadan was quoted by Iraq's Rafidain newspaper Tuesday
as saying the return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq -- a step the U.N.
inspection chief has said might avert war -- was futile if Washington planned
to attack Iraq anyway.
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- Syria's official al-Baath newspaper accused Washington
of seeking to install puppet regimes across the Middle East to serve U.S.
and Israeli interests. "All the Arabs without exception are at risk,"
it said in a commentary.
-
- Amid signs of strain in Washington's relations with Saudi
Arabia, a longtime close ally, Bush telephoned Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah
Tuesday to praise the "eternal friendship" between their two
countries.
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- The state-owned Saudi Press Agency published details
of the telephone call to Prince Abdullah, the de facto Saudi ruler, in
which Bush played down a recent slew of anti-Saudi comments in the United
States.
-
- "Such talk does not reflect the strength and solidity
of the relationship," it quoted Bush as saying. "It only reflects
the opinion of the person who said it and it cannot affect the eternal
friendship between the two countries."
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- The negative comments, including one at a Pentagon briefing
that the Saudis should be considered adversaries, have angered Riyadh and
sparked rare calls within the world's biggest oil exporter to review relations
with its main Western ally.
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