BBC - Arabs warn against wider attacks Arab leaders have warned the US-led alliance not to extend its attack on Afghanistan to other Muslim or Arab countries.

"Launching strikes against any Arab country under any pretence would lead to severe complications," Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told Egyptian radio as the league's foreign ministers gathered on Tuesday.

The 22 ministers are meeting in Doha, the capital of Qatar, to reach a joint position on the US strikes against Afghanistan.

"We will seek to formulate a united stand," said Mohammad al-Amin Saif, the Foreign Minister of Comoros, which currently chairs the ministerial council.

The meeting was to precede a larger meeting including the 57 foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Doha on Wednesday.

Raids 'premature'

Mr Saif pointed out that the Arab countries had condemned the 11 September attacks against the United States.

"But the raids are premature," he said, expressing the unease felt also by other Arab countries in light of the US attack.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has fought against Islamic fundamentalism in his own country, expressed his support for the alliance on Tuesday, but asked that civilian casualties be avoided.

"We support all measures taken by the United States to resist terrorism," he said, calling at the same time for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Mr Moussa said the Arab position would be "fierce" if Arab countries were attacked within the context of the ongoing campaign.

"We could never accept strikes against any Arab country, particularly since the accusations made by the United States focused on specific camps, which have been linked to what happened in New York and Washington," he said.

Omani Foreign Minister Yussuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah said Arab countries would continue supporting the United States as long as its operations "come within the anti-terror fight."

But he, too, warned that the "Arab League will not accept any move that might target an Arab country," according to ONA, the official Omani news agency.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite television station that any attack on Iraq would be "to settle old scores."

Popular dissent

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Arab countries in an interview on Al-Jazeera, which was dubbed into Arabic, that Osama Bin Laden was as much a threat to the Middle East as he was to the West.

The BBC's Frank Gardner in Doha says that is a message that moderate Arab governments have mostly failed to get across to their people.

Now they face a growing problem from disillusioned citizens who can see few benefits from being friends with America and the West.

Across the Middle East, governments are battling to rein in hardline elements.

In the Gaza Strip, three Palestinians were killed in violent clashes with their own security forces following a pro-Bin Laden demonstration on Monday.

Egypt and even Oman, where demonstrations are very rare, have had two straight days of student protests against the US attacks on Afghanistan.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001

Answers

If they don't have terrorists, what do they have to worry about?

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001

Thanks OG - good catch!

After reading this, is makes me wonder why Bush is so reluctant to fill our Strategic Oil Reserves? You'd think he'd be ordering every barrell available filled...

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001

The SPR is just a giant salt mine. Stockpiling product, as they started to do last winter, would be far more effective.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001