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Mubarak Says Iraq War Will Produce "100 bin Ladens"
Published on Monday, March 31, 2003 by Reuters
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Mubarak Says Iraq War Will Produce "100 bin Ladens"
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CAIRO - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
said on Monday the U.S.-led war on Iraq would produce "one
hundred new bin Ladens", driving more Muslims to anti-Western
militancy.
A wounded Iraqi girl in central Iraq March 29, 2003. Confused front line crossfire ripped apart an Iraqi family on Saturday after local soldiers appeared to force civilians towards U.S. marines positions. The four-year old girl, blood streaming from an eye wound, was screaming for her dead mother, while her father, shot in a leg, begged to be freed from the plastic wrist cuffs slapped on him by U.S. marines, so he could hug his other terrified daughter. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
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"When it is over, if it is over, this war will have horrible
consequences," Mubarak told Egyptian soldiers in the city of
Suez. "Instead of having one (Osama) bin Laden, we will have 100
bin Ladens," he added. Osama bin Laden is the Saudi-born
fugitive Islamic militant leader blamed by the United States for
the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Egypt, a key regional U.S. ally which has cracked down hard
on Islamic militants, publicly opposes the war launched by
Washington to overthrow President Saddam Hussein. European opponents of the war, led by French President
Jacques Chirac, have also argued that military action against
Iraq would fuel terrorism and split the international coalition
assembled by Washington to fight bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Mubarak said Iraqi forces fighting U.S. and British troops
were "guarding Iraq's lands and defending its national honour
and nobility" in the conflict. Reflecting widespread public anger at what many Arabs see as
Western aggression against an Arab country, he said the war
woould cause a "great tragedy (and) destroy a deep-rooted
culture and people". "Egypt's position has been and still is clear in
rejecting...the military option and rejecting participation in
military action of the coalition forces against brotherly Iraq,"
he said. Mubarak said the war had raised many questions, especially
among the Arab and Muslim peoples of the Middle East, about the
"credibility of the international system of collective security
represented in the United Nations". Many Arabs think Washington has employed double standards in
enforcing U.N. resolutions on Iraq while not making Israel
comply with resolutions demanding withdrawal from Palestinian
territories and an end to Jewish settlements. Mubarak read out the highlights of an international plan for
Israeli-Palestinian peace called the "roadmap", saying that
while the Palestinian Authority had accepted it, the government
of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had asked for 100
changes. "This means the roadmap has been rendered meaningless.
Unless the big powers agree and put forward a mechanism to
implement it without any alterations...I believe the roadmap
will not move on the right road and it might lead to
complications," he said.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd
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