Arab League Secretary General: US war on Iraq will open door to hell

Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa believes that if the US unleashes a war against Iraq, the Arab world will not confine itself to angry statements alone.

In an interview with RIA Novosti, he said that because of the situation in Palestinian territories and the United States' support for Israel, and Israel's continuing occupation of Palestine, the situation in the region has reached the critical point. He underscored that if the war on Iraq was unleashed, it would open the door to the hell.

For this reason, he said, the Arab countries hope the situation around Iraq will be settled politically and diplomatically." Amr Moussa promised that the Arab countries would do everything possible to prevent the military development of events.

The Arab League believes that there is no need for military interference, because Iraq has agreed to admit international inspectors without any preliminary conditions, and at the present time Baghdad is meeting all their demands, Amr Moussa pointed out. According to him, the Arab countries stand for continuing inspections in Iraq and want them to be successful. The Arab League hopes that as a result of the inspections an objective and all-embracing report about the situation in Iraq would be presented, said Amr Moussa.

As to the Palestinian-Israeli settlement, the Arab countries hope that the new peace plan, which the four co-sponsors are now working out, will have guarantees for its realisation. First of all this concerns Israel, said the Secretary General of the Arab League. In his opinion, possibilities do exist to make Israel fulfil the resolutions of the UN Security Council which it ignored up till now.

Amr Moussa once more confirmed the Arab League's resolution to develop multilateral cooperation with Russia, including in the sphere of economy and in sharing high technologies. He pointed out that the role of the Arab League is that it can speak on behalf of the whole Arab community and not on behalf of only one country. However, specific agreements have not been forged yet, and details of cooperation between the Arab League and Russia are only being discussed, underscored Amr Moussa.