In
a televised address, French President Jacques Chirac said "France
regrets this action undertaken without the approval of the United
Nations."
"I
hope that operations will be as rapid and as victim-free as possible and
does not lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. Whatever the duration of
this conflict, it will be heavy with consequences for the future,"
he said.
China,
which voiced strong opposition to a new U.N. resolution authorizing war
on Iraq, appealed to the "relevant countries to stop the use of
military force."
Staunch
anti-war German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder branded war as a
"defeat for politics."
"This
is bitter news. War is the worst of all solutions," German Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer said, while Defense Minister Peter Struck said
inspectors "should have been given more time."
Turkish
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said in Ankara he regretted the start of a
U.S.-led war against Iraq, the Anatolia news agency reported.
"I
do not find the unilateral U.S. action right," Sezer charged,
adding Washington should have let the U.N. disarmament process run
longer.
Belgium's
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, for his part, deplored the war and
denounced the flouting of international law at a press conference.
"We
continue to think that abandoning international law is a price too high
to pay for the disarmament, however desirable, of the regime in place in
Baghdad," Verhofstadt said.
Speaking
in Geneva, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque dismissed the war
"illegal, unfair and useless," saying the world had become
"hostage" to the "whimsical decisions of an unlimited
power."
The
Vatican also condemned the U.S.-led strikes, with Cardinal Roberto
Tucci, a close confidant of Pope John Paul II, calling war a
"defeat for reason" and saying it went beyond "all
legality and all international legitimacy."
Annan
Urges U.S. To Protect Civilians
For
his part, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the United States
to do whatever possible to protect civilians during its military
aggression.
"I
hope that all parties will scrupulously observe the requirements of
international humanitarian law, and will do everything in their power to
shield the civilian population from the grim consequences of war,"
he said.
"The
United Nations, for its part, will do whatever it can to bring them
assistance and support," Annan said in a statement to reporters.
The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a solemn appeal
to all parties to respect humanitarian laws.
Islamic
Countries Condemn War
The
Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called for an immediate end
to the U.S.-led war of aggression on Iraq.
"The
OIC deeply regrets the latest developments in Iraq and calls for an
immediate end to military operations and a return (to diplomacy) to try
to find a peaceful solution through the U.N. Security Council,"
said OIC Secretary General Abdulwahed Belkeziz.
He
also urged the return to Iraq of U.N. weapons inspectors, who were
pulled out in the final hours before the United States launched a war
earlier Thursday.
"War
is never the best way to resolve conflicts," he said, adding that
it would "add to the suffering of the Iraqi people and upset the
stability of the Middle East."
The
secretary general of the 57-nation group also said that the U.S.-led war
would "increase terrorism and extremism in the world."
 |
|
"I
hope all parties will do everything in their power to shield the
civilian population from the grim consequences of war,"
said Annan
|
In
Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak phoned Bush and told him that the
military operations should be brought to an end.
Iran
also condemned the attack on its neighbour Iraq as "unjustifiable
and illegitimate" but insisted on Thursday it would not take sides
in the conflict.
Foreign
Minister Kamal Kharazi was quick to denounce the dawn raids on Baghdad
when he issued a statement saying: "The American military
operations against Iraq are unjustifiable and illegitimate."
But
he was equally adamant when he reiterated Tehran's stance, namely that
"the Islamic republic will not intervene in favor of one side or
another."
"A
new round of efforts in order to reduce the horrible and extensive
consequences of the war must start."
Also
in the Middle East, the Palestinian Authority strongly condemned the
U.S. military campaign, warning Israel not to exploit the war as a
pretext for stepping up incursions in the Palestinian territories.
In
North Africa, both Algeria and Morocco regretted that military force had
supplanted diplomacy as the means to defuse the standoff.
