Mahathir Warns of Retaliation from More Muslims If US Attacks Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, February 24, 2003

Mahathir Warns of Retaliation from More Muslims If US Attacks Iraq

Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad Sunday warned that any US attack on Iraq is feared to spark retaliation from more Muslims.

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Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad Sunday warned that any US attack on Iraq is feared to spark retaliation from more Muslims.

The imminent US attack on Iraq will simply be deemed as a war against Muslims and not against the fear of possession of weapons, he said in a speech delivered at the Business Forum on South-South Cooperation, which was held on the sideline of the 13th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Sunday.

"The world is in a state of terror", he said. But he stressed that fighting global terrorists is not like fighting a conventional war against a country.

"You can defeat a country and get it surrender, sign a treaty and bring the war to an end.... Even if their leaders surrender there is no guarantee that other leaders will not emerge... and new recruits will not continue their terror attacks," Mahathir said.

He cited as an example of the bloody conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis, who have been locked in a vicious cycleof strike and retaliation, which resulted in endless bloodshed.

The Malaysian prime minister criticized Israel for terming its attacks on Palestinians as an excuse of fighting terrorism.

"The result is predicable," he said, noting that Israeli strike against Palestine will attract more retaliations from the Palestinians under the occupation of Israel.

The Business Forum on South-South Cooperation was opened here earlier Sunday prior to the 13th NAM summit, which is to be held next Monday and Tuesday.

Among the 114 members of the Non-Aligned Movement, 111 heads ofstate or government as well as foreign ministers will attend the forthcoming summit.

Malaysia will assume the chairmanship of NAM to replace South Africa, which hosted last NAM summit in 1998.

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