World News 28-08-2002 Middle East Warns US Against Iraq Strike who: President Hosni Mubarak what: Says US strike on Iraq would cause Middle East unrest where: EGYPT when: Yesterday snippet: "President George Bush launched a bid yesterday to repair America`s tattered relations with its main Gulf ally, Saudi Arabia," reports The Independent, "amid a barrage of fresh warnings from the Arab world about the wisdom of a US military attack on Iraq." Egypt`s president, Hosni Mubarak, has warned that a US invasion of Iraq would result in "disorder and chaos" throughout the Middle East, says The Scotsman. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah says his kingdom opposes military action; the foreign minister of Qatar has voiced his opposition; in Europe, the chancellor of Germany has refused to support a unilateral attack; but Israel`s deputy internal security minister, Gideon Ezra, says he sees "many advantages" to a pre-emptive strike. Meanwhile, in the UK, the "credibility gap over Iraq has grown," says The Guardian today. "A majority of Labour voters - 52% - now say that Mr Blair should not support American policy on Iraq." Just a day after vice-president Dick Cheney said that the US could not risk inaction, George W Bush - meeting with the Saudi ambassador at the president`s ranch in Texas - promised that he would consult with his foreign allies before taking military action. It all amounts to "a cacophony of mixed signals", says The Scotsman`s Tim Cornwell. And The Telegraph`s leader today says that the US should be concerned by the "faint-heartedness of its allies" and calls on the Bush administration to convince the world by making public the secret intelligence about "Baghdad`s efforts to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons since the United Nations inspectors left in 1998." [... more]

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