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Mandelson threatened that if the Saudi government had encouraged the boycott, he would take the matter to the WTO.
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BRUSSELS,
January 30, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The
commercial and diplomatic crisis over the provocative cartoons took a
new turn Monday, January 30, with the European Commission raising the
prospect of retaliatory WTO action against Riyadh if the Saudi
government supported the growing boycott of Danish products.
"EU
Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson discussed the issue of the cartoons
with a senior Saudi Arabian official Thursday, January 26, at the
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland," commission spokesman
Peter Power told journalists Monday, according to Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
"Mandelson
explained that the Danish boycott would be a boycott of the European
Union and the matter is very serious," Power said.
"He
made it clear that if the Saudi government had encouraged the boycott,
commissioner Mandelson would regret having to take the matter to the
WTO," he added
.
Many
Gulf retailers have pulled Danish products from their shelves and
ambassadors have been summoned for a dressing down over the
publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons depicting Prophet
Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him).
Muslims
in Denmark and around the world have protested the 12 cartoons,
published in Denmark's mass circulation Jyllands-Posten last
September, as images of the Prophet are considered blasphemous
.
The
cartoons include a portrayal of the Prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped
turban and show him as a wild-eyed, knife-wielding Bedouin flanked by
two women shrouded in black
.
They
were reprinted in a Norwegian magazine earlier this month, sparking
uproar in the Muslim world
.
Major
Saudi supermarkets posted notices saying "Danish products are not
sold" over their cheese displays, while sms messages urging
consumers to boycott Danish products were being circulated.
In
Kuwait, the Union of Cooperative Societies, the largest retail
network, said all Danish products were to be withdrawn starting
Sunday, January 29.
Power
declined to say whether Mandelson had been reassured by the Saudi
response that it had not supported the boycott.
"I
think we're looking for clarification on this issue," he said.
Power
said that the commission was getting "conflicting reports"
about decisions by retailers to boycott Danish products
.
UAE
Reaction
Joining
the mounting boycott by Muslim consumers, a United Arab Emirates (UAE)
chain of supermarkets has also declared their boycott of Danish
products in protest of the cartoons, reported AFP
.
The
Consumers Cooperative Union, a chain of local supermarkets in the UAE,
has decided to "boycott all Danish products", the group said
in a statement issued Monday, January 30, in local newspapers
.
It
called on all its members to take Danish products off their shelves
"in response to the offence against Prophet Mohammed ... and in
response to consumers' wishes
".
The
head of the union's management council, Suleiman Al-Jassem, said the
boycott was "a clear message (demanding) an end to the attacks on
Islam or all other religions
".
Dozens
of UAE people, including women, staged a one-hour gathering in a Dubai
park in protest at the cartoons
.
Danish
Losses
The
boycott, which has already swept through Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,
would lead to losses of 27 million dollars for Danish firms operating
in the Gulf region, Thomas Bay, the Danish consul in Dubai, was quoted
as saying by Al-Emirat Al-Yom newspaper
.
Danish
dairy producer Arla alone does business worth 486 million dollars (402
million euros) a year in the Middle East, the bulk of it with Saudi
Arabia
.
And
in Cairo, Egypt's powerful opposition Muslim Brotherhood Monday was
the latest group to join a chorus of calls for the boycott of Danish
and Norwegian products, reported AFP.
"I
call on Arab and Muslim peoples and governments to boycott Danish and
Norwegian products and take firm measures," the Islamist
movement's leader Mohammed Mehdi Akef said in a statement.
The
incident has threatened to deal an unprecedented blow to the Muslim
and Arab world's usually healthy relations with Scandinavian
governments, who are major donors in the region.
