Qatari People Afraid of Attacking Iraq

By Dalia Al- Hadidi, IOL Qatar correspondent

AL-DOHA, July 21 (IslamOnline) - Qataris and foreigners alike are afraid, angry and denouncing as far as the American threat of a strike on Iraq is concerned. This could be the best way to describe the general atmosphere in Qatar currently.

Kareem Harb, an Iraqi auditor, said to IslamOnline Saturday, July 20, 2002 that it was Washington that caused the failure of Iraqi recent talks with the UN, as it planned for this, pointing out the will of the U.S. to topple Saddam Hussein’s ruling order.

“The plan includes not only Iraq, but also Gulf countries and the whole Arab areas,” he added.

Fannan Al-Sheikh, an Iraqi graphic engineer in the Qatari satellite news channel, Al-Jazeera added, “ of course we are afraid as there is plans of attacking and dividing Iraq. Those feeling are accepted logically for the existence of the American bases in most of the Gulf countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Al-Sheikh said that he does not expect positive acts from the Arab countries. “ If Iraq was hit by the American expected strike, one will hear the denouncing voices heard after every Israeli attack on Palestine. Meanwhile, the nations have nothing to do but to demonstrate,” he added.

He expected that the strike would be in November as the American soldiers will not bear the hot sun in the summer.

Fahd al-Hadded, a retired Qatari employee said, “ the situation is very dangerous as there is no guarantees that the Arab countries will not allow a strike against Iraq launched from its bases. In addition to this, the clear contradiction between the countries which try to act rationally and people’s refusal of any foreign existence on the Arab lands.”

Concerning the same views, Yasser Mokhtar an Egyptian marketing manager said, “ yes, Iraq will be attacked and we will keep silent and be ashamed. The strike will come sooner or later and will be followed by media news covering that might remove the shame of the Arab governments.

Hashem Abdul-Rahman, a secretary from Pakistan, said that the U.S. has prepared the Arab governments to accept any bad situation to avoid worse ones. He also confirmed that in spite of his conservations on Saddam’s order, he believes that attacking Iraq will affect the Iraqi people and the Arab nations very badly, but he still thinks that preventing this strike is excluded.

Fatma Shedeed said that the situation is miserable as we live frightened in Arab lands despite the absence of any dangerous on the Iraqis’ lives in Qatar, but there is growing restrictions on giving Iraqis visa to enter Qatar.

“There is no hope in official acts except for statements for the Arab governments do exactly the American aspirations, and it is just a few time before preparing the public opinion for striking Iraq,” said Adie Salem.

Salem added that he thinks that threats to the American interests could be expected, but it will be carried out by individuals as was the attack on Al Odayed base in Qatar. This base is about 40Km to the south the Qatari capital Al-Doha. The base is used as American air military base in the course of the agreement of the military cooperation signed by both U.S. and Qatar.

The base was attacked in November 7, 2002 by a Qatari citizen called Abdu-Allah Mubarak Al-hagrei as he fired it injuring some American soldiers.

On the other hand, the Iraqi ambassador in Qatar, Fakhry Al-delemy said to Islamonline.net, “I think that the idea of attacking Iraq appeared as the talks between Iraq, the U.N. and the Gulf countries provoked a good deal of understanding. So, the U.S. was afraid about its interests in the Gulf especially after the resolutions of Beirut Arab summit.

He confirmed that there is Arab officials including Kuwaitis who recognize the dangers of the expected attack on the Iraqi and Arab security as well.

The Iraqi ambassador belittled the Iraqi opposition in London as he said that this meeting does not worth commenting on, as it was attended by a group of agents paid for by the Zionistic American Intelligence.

Al-delemy added that he is sure that Al-Shreif Ali Bin Al-Hussien, who the American administration is willing to send to Baghdad, is unable to count ten of the Iraqi towns. He mocked him adding, “if he was able to do so, we will reconsider the whole matter.”

It is worthy mentioning that 70 Former Iraqi military officers and opposition groups held a three-day meeting in London on Friday July 12, 2002 to discuss efforts to topple Saddam and establish civilian rule.