Powell Fails to Persuade Mideast Leaders: US Paper

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 07, 2003

Powell Fails to Persuade Mideast Leaders: US Paper

US Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq changed few minds in the early reaction from Middle East leaders, the Washington Times reported Thursday.

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US Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq changed few minds in the early reaction from Middle East leaders, the Washington Times reported Thursday.

Among governments in the region, only Israel, a staunch US ally,embraced Powell's arguments. Most official responses from Arab governments said the US case still did not justify war without explicit UN sanction.

Osama El Baz, a top adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,said the "situation in the region remained very fragile."

"The prevalent feeling is that the process should be given moretime to work," said El Baz, who headed a delegation of Egyptian officials and scholars who met with reporters and editors at the Washington Times on Wednesday.

"It's important to get as much international legitimacy and acceptance (as possible) at this stage in determining what we do next," said El Baz, who said Egypt has led the fight to rid the region of weapons of mass destruction, but remains suspicious of any move to oust a sovereign government.

Abdel Monem Said, director of the Al Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, said Powell was the most effective spokesman that the Bush administration could have chosen to sell its case inthe region.

"Secretary Powell has a lot of credibility and prestige in the region," he said, "but it won't be impossible for the Iraqis to challenge a lot of evidence he presented. It was interesting that the other big powers on the Security Council didn't reject the US case, but said now it should be put in the hand of the inspectors."

In Syria, the government daily Tishrin said the Powell presentation was a clear signal that the Bush administration already had decided to go to war, with or without UN backing.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, who met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Wednesday, said his country remained opposed to a war for fear it might spread throughout the region, but added that Iran was not backing Saddam's regime.

By contrast, Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press briefing in Jerusalem that Powell had "exposed the great dangers that emanate from (Iraq) to the region and to the world."

He said the intelligence provided by Powell proved that "Saddamis willfully violating UN resolutions and trying to develop stealth biological weapons, chemical weapons and nuclear weapons."

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