From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: U.S. action against Iraq splits allies (fwd)
Date: 26 Jan 1993 08:40:33 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

 U.S. action against Iraq splits allies

 26 Jan 93

        WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Many key allies aligned with the United States
 against Iraq appear to be distancing themselves from the current round
 of action aimed at forcing Saddam Hussein's adherence to U.N.
 resolutions.
        The 36 nations that contributed troops to the Persian Gulf War and 18
 that provided money or humanitarian supplies -- a remarkable amalgamation
 of such unlikely strategic bedfellows as Syria, Iceland and Niger -- were
 willing to help former President Bush repel Saddam's attempted
 annexation of Kuwait and prevent the impact that would have on world oil
 markets.
        But Bush's willingness to stage multiple air strikes against Iraq in
 recent weeks has exposed chinks in coalition armor.
        Opposition to the fresh round of confrontation revealed itself in
 full when 39 U.S. Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles slammed into an alleged
 Iraqi nuclear weapons research facility near Baghdad. One missile veered
 off target and struck a hotel in the city.
        U.S. officials say they divide objections and their underlying
 reasons into two categories.
        Great Britain, France and Russia, permanent U.N. Security Council
 members whose right to veto any action action could make it impossible
 for the United States to finesse its global policies through the
 international body, felt Bush had personalized the conflict with Saddam
 and would do anything to triumph during the waning days of his
 presidency.
        U.S. officials also said those nations felt the situation was
 escalating and spinning out of control.
        Islamic nations with one eye on Iraq and the other shifting uneasily
 from Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Middle East peace talks make up the other
 camp of opposition, they say.
        France, Great Britain, Russia and other European nations said
 publicly that they support U.N. resolutions ordering Saddam to stop
 abusing indigenous Kurds and Shiites, developing weapons of mass
 destruction and grabbing neighboring Arab real estate. But they could
 not condone such massive, unilateral action as the cruise missile
 attack.
        Senior U.S. officials acknowledge some discord over the missile
 barrage among western allies, which they maintain were ``totally
 briefed'' on the operation. Nevertheless, they say, ``ruffled feathers''
 have been smoothed with promises to consult ``unitl we are blue in the
 face'' prior to any future military action of that scope.
        There has been no permanent damage to relations among western
 coalition members, they say.
        ``I don't see any disconnect with Great Britain, France or Russia
 with what's going on in Iraq,'' a senior State Department official said
 under conditions of anonymity.
        But discord among such Islamic members as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey
 and Egypt is far more serious and far harder to counter, U.S. officials
 said.
        ``Islamic allies are concerned about fellow Moslems in Bosnia,'' the
 State Department official said. ``The perception is that we are willing
 to do more against Moslems in Iraq than for Moslems in Bosnia.''
        Although traditional Moslems in the Middle East are ``world's apart''
 philosophically and religiously from ``European Moslems'' in Bosnia, the
 official said, it is important for ``domestic consumption'' that all
 Islamic nations appear to be doing something to stop murder, rape and
 ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.
        Saddam's strategy has been to ``peel off the no-fly zones'' from U.N.
 resolutions while supporting the other measures, U.S. officials have
 said.
        U.N. resolutions do not specifically authorize the air-exclusion
 zones over the northern and southern regions of Iraq. Washington
 interpreted provisions of the resolutions prohibiting repression of
 Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north as permitting the no-fly
 zones.
        Officials of Islamic nations say it makes no sense for them to
 support imposition of a no-fly zone over Iraq that was not authorized by
 the United Nations while the United States refuses to enforce one over
 Bosnia-Herzegovina that was approved by the world body.
        The United Nations several months ago instituted a ban on Serbian
 military flights over Bosnia-Herzegovina, but have not yet agreed on how
 to enforce it.
        King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, warned President Bush
 in a six-page handwritten note last June that the Islamic world would
 object loudly unless the administration did something to ease Moslem
 suffering in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a senior Middle Eastern diplomat said.
        King Fahd even offered to deploy ground troops in the former
 Yugoslavia if the United States pledged to do the same, the official
 said.
        Furthermore, the official and others said, Saudi Foreign Minister
 Prince Faysal lectured former Secretary of State James Baker about the
 need for action in Bosnia for 1 1/2 hours of a two-hour meeting in Jiddah
 last July.
        The Saudi leaders and others in the Islamic world cautioned the Bush
 administration that Moslem support for punishing Iraq and for the Middle
 East peace process would fade unless Washington acted more strongly to
 halt the Balkan tragedy.
        ``It is the only way Washington can maintain credibility,'' the
 Turkish diplomat said.
        President Clinton and Secretary of State Warren Christopher have
 pledged to act forcefully and soon to halt the mayhem in Bosnia-
 Herzegovina, but nothing has yet been done.
        ``That's going to be one of the highest priorities of the new
 national security team,'' Christopher said Monday.
             _
 |-| /-\ |_ |_| |<
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish