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There’s A Catch For Israel If The U.S. Strikes Iraq: Report
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Iraq welcomed France's warning against unilateral U.S. military action to topple Saddam Hussein's regime, saying it harked back to the politics of Charles de Gaulle
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, August 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Israeli decision-makers
believe that a U.S. strike against Iraq, will strengthen Israel's hand
on the Palestinian front and throughout the region, a news report said
on Friday.
The
Christian Science (CS) Monitor, said that Israeli Deputy Interior
Minister Gideon Ezra suggested this week that a U.S. attack on Iraq
will help Israel impose a new order, sans Arafat, in the Palestinian
territories.
The
paper said that Israeli fear that the U.S. will back off from the
strikes. “If the Americans do not do this now," said Israeli
Deputy Defense Minister and Labor Party member Weizman Shiry on
Wednesday, "it will be harder to do it in the future. In a year
or two, Saddam Hussein will be further along in developing weapons of
mass destruction. It is a world interest, but especially an American
interest to attack Iraq," the paper said.
Shiry
added that the U.S. will receive any assistance it needs from Israel.
Ezra,
according to CS monitor, feels that the “more aggressive the attack
is, the more it will help Israel against the Palestinians” and that
it will “undoubtedly deal a psychological blow" to the
Palestinians.
The
CS monitor also said that Yuval Steinitz, a Likud party member of the
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, says he sees another
advantage for Israel. The installation of a pro-American government in
Iraq would help Israel vis-à-vis another enemy: Syria, said the
monitor.
"After
Iraq is taken by U.S. troops and we see a new regime installed as in
Afghanistan, and Iraqi bases become American bases, it will be very
easy to pressure Syria to stop supporting terrorist organizations like
Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad, to allow the Lebanese army to dismantle
Hizbullah, and maybe to put an end to the Syrian occupation in
Lebanon," he says. "If this happens we will really see a new
Middle East," reported the monitor.
Meanwhile,
Iraqi newspaper, Al Iraq, said Friday that a U.S. strike on Iraq would
be the last nail in Washington’s coffin given the growing
worldwide opposition to any such campaign to oust Saddam Hussein's
regime, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The U.S. administration is hammering the last nail in its
coffin, and it seems that this administration now realizes that even
its allies have deserted it and that it could not finance its
war," the official Al-Iraq said.
U.S. President George W. Bush's "boasts are aimed at scoring
public opinion points but they have come up against a wall of
rejection," the daily said.
The Bush administration was "seeking to make gains domestically
to allow him to at least delay the legislative elections and deflect
attention away from the recession the U.S. economy is suffering
from."
It
has made "futile and irresponsible statements against our country
and its leaders, who constitute a complex and a terrible nightmare for
American politicians," Al-Iraq said.
Iraq on
Friday, also welcomed France's warning against unilateral U.S.
military action to topple Saddam Hussein's regime, saying it harked
back to the French politics of Charles de Gaulle.
"France
once again finds itself closer to the De Gaulle politics of the 1960s
when he withdrew his country from NATO," said Iraqi newspaper,
Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party in Baghdad.
"De
Gaulle wanted to give French politics, and thus European politics, a
clear independence with regards to U.S. politics and its vicious
hegemonic aims," the daily said.
De
Gaulle withdrew French forces from NATO's integrated military command
in 1966 in a move to reclaim France's full sovereignty.
Ath-Thawra
said Europe in general was "heading for a new phase in its
relations with the United States, marked by more fairness, having
undergone a long period of U.S. blackmail.
"U.S.
decision-makers can no longer count on Europe in the 21st century.
Having realized it was tricked by America in attacks in different
parts of the world, (Europe) is starting to distance itself from U.S.
visions and goals.
"The recourse to political blackmail by the US administration
against European countries is a bet doomed to failure," the paper
said.
French
President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that any decision to strike Iraq should be made only by the U.N. Security Council.
"If
Baghdad insists on refusing to allow the unconditional return of
inspectors, it would be up to the Security Council alone to decide
what measures to take," said Chirac, who avoided openly
criticizing Washington and did not rule out the possibility of using
force against Iraq.
Chirac
said the unilateral use of force was "against France's vision of
collective security, of cooperation between states and respect for the
law and authority of the Security Council."
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