The Hindu : NAM may oppose U.S. war on Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 17, 2003

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NAM may oppose U.S. war on Iraq

By P.S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Feb. 16. The Non-Aligned Movement may, at its 13th summit in Kuala Lumpur, raise its voice against the U.S. move to declare a war on Iraq to disarm it by treating it as a "proliferator of weapons of mass destruction". This has been outlined by Malaysia, which will host the summit for two days from Feb. 24.

The Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said in Kuala Lumpur today that the summit might issue a special statement on Iraq. The statement would reflect NAM's unanimity against any kind of war on Iraq.

In his view, the NAM members held a strong stand on this matter. Malaysia, according to regional diplomats and analysts, was moving ahead to organise the summit on the basis of an assumption that the U.S. might not launch a military strike against Iraq before or during the summit. He said: "We will come up with a statement on Iraq at the summit".

Speaking to journalists after inaugurating a conference on peace, he said the indications of Washington's willingness to strike against Iraq, even without U.N. sanction, might, "in a way", show how "very arrogant" the U.S. was.

He said the current Iraq crisis as also the Palestine question had become matters of universal concern without being seen any longer as issues pertaining to the Islamic bloc.

Spelling out Malaysia's position on Iraq, as distinct from a possible collective stand by the NAM forum, he said the U.N. weapons inspectors should be allowed to complete their work.

Should the inspectors conclude that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction, Malaysia would want the U.N. to lift the sanctions against Baghdad.

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