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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Iraq war could make '100 bin Ladens' |
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| Moe_D |
| 03/31/03 at 12:14:05 |
| Mideast - AFP Egypt urges new peace push in face of growing Iraq war toll 2 hours, 30 minutes ago Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo! CAIRO (AFP) - Key US ally Egypt called for a new Iraq (news - web sites) peace push in the face of the "appalling human tragedy" resulting from the fighting there, warning that it could produce "100 Osama bin Ladens". "The armed confrontation in Iraq between the coalition forces who are seeking to overthrow the regime and the Iraqi armed forces who are defending their territory ... is resulting in an appalling human tragedy with victims on both sides and the destruction of a people," President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) said Monday. "We must all work rapidly for a peaceful settlement which satisfies the will of the international community and preserves the unity, sovereignty and dignity of Iraq," the president told army officers in a televised address. Mubarak warned that far from eliminating a possible terror threat against the United States, the campaign against Saddam's regime was liable to inflame world opinion and spark more attacks on US targets. "I fear this war will have enormous consequences and lead to an increase in terrorism. When this war ends, there may be 100 bin Ladens instead of just one," he said, referring to the head of the al-Qaeda terror movement. "The war will have political, economic and social consequences that will be difficult to face," Mubarak said. Mubarak denied that the US-led invasion of Iraq had caused differences between Egypt and the more radical regime in Syria, which has taken a more hostile position to the war against its eastern neighbour. Relations between the two Arab governments were "longstanding and strategic," the Egyptian leader said. Last Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher called in the Syrian ambassador here to protest against what he described as "irresponsible machinations" during anti-war demonstrations in Damascus. Some protestors had chanted slogans criticising Egypt for not going further in its opposition to British and US military action. Mubarak also responded to repeated protestors' demands that the Suez canal linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea be closed to coalition warships, saying this was not possible under the Constantinople Treaty of 1888, which is binding on Egypt. "The passage of ships through the Suez canal is the right of all states, unless Egypt is at war with one," he said. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1514&e=10&u=/afp/20030331/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_war_egypt_030331143907 |
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