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| International |
| Arabs reluctant to join coalition |
| 2001-09-16 |
US Secretary of State Colin Powell looked Friday to the Arab world as the United States forged ahead in building a global anti-terrorism coalition to back US retaliation for the strikes in New York and Washington. But Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak opposes any anti-terrorist coalition to confront the attacks on the United States that is not under the auspices of the United Nations. "A coalition grouping a select number of countries must not be formed since that will not permit decisive and collective international action against terrorism," Mubarak said in the government-run Al-Ahram daily on Saturday. "It would be better to hold an international conference against terrorism under the auspices of the United Nations to adopt binding resolutions for all the countries of the world," he said. Morocco and Jordan, two other Arab allies of the United States, also expressed reservations about a military engagement, while no Arab country says it is ready to take part in military action. King Mohammed VI of Morocco on Thursday urged Washington to favor negotiations while Jordan's King Abdullah I said the anti-US attacks would not have occurred if Washington had settled the problems in the Middle East. If a majoritiy of Arab countries took part in the US-led military coalition against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait more than 10 years ago, the circumstances are very different today, according to analyst Ahmed Abdul Halim. "The Gulf War was about restoring the sovereignty of a country which had been stricken from the map by another," said General Halim, an analyst with the pro-government Cairo Center for Middle East Studies. "But today, the Arabs cannot join a coalition whose goals are unclear and while Israel is trying to include Palestinian organizations like Hamas and Jihad, or Hezbollah of Lebanon, on a list of terrorist groups," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |