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To: iandiareii who wrote (33000)	12/17/1998 8:48:00 AM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Respond to of 95453

December 17 7:34 AM ET Iraq Raid Condemned In Mideast, Arab League To Meet Reuters Photo By Barry May DUBAI (Reuters) - Middle East states condemned Thursday's U.S. military strikes against Iraq and Palestinians called for an emergency Arab summit. Commentators mocked President Clinton for attacking Baghdad to distract attention from the impending vote on his impeachment. The Palestinian Authority urged Arab states to convene an emergency summit that would call for an immediate end to the missile raids. ''We condemn this unjustifiable attack on Iraq and appeal for Arab countries to convene an urgent summit...to call without delay for a halt to the attacks,'' Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, general secretary of the Palestinian cabinet, told Reuters. Arab League officials said it would hold an emergency meeting at the weekend at Iraq's request to discuss the strikes. It was not immediately clear if foreign ministers or the permanent representatives at the Cairo-based League would attend the session. The League's Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid said: ''This strike is considered to be an act of aggression against an Arab country that was trying to implement and comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions.'' But a senior Arab diplomat in Cairo said a summit of the 22-member Arab League was unlikely because Arab leaders harbored little sympathy for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat avoided comment. He was seen as siding with Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War over Iraq's invasion of Kuwait but met Clinton warmly on a visit to Gaza this week. Lebanon's new prime minister and foreign minister, Selim al-Hoss, denounced the attacks and urged Washington to stop the raids to demonstrate an even-handed policy in the Middle East. ''We are asking the United States to stop this aggression and lift sanctions from the Iraqi people and show commitment to a fair position on the region's issues,'' he said. Iran said one of its southern cities was hit by a stray missile, causing damage but no casualties. It called the strikes willful and unacceptable, saying they would worsen the suffering of the Iraqi people and increase instability in the region. Tehran urged United Nations action to halt the operation. At the same time, it urged Baghdad, its foe in eight years of war in the 1980s, to cooperate with the world body to implement Security Council resolutions. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, the world's biggest Muslim group, urged an immediate halt to strikes. The OIC, based in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, said its Secretary-General Azeddine Laraki ''issues an urgent appeal for an immediate halt to military action against Iraq, and a return to dialogue to spare the Iraqi people more suffering.'' The OIC groups 55 Muslim countries from across the world. The head of Egypt's biggest Islamic group, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, said the United States had earned the hatred of Muslims for ''such brutal attacks.'' ''This shows how arrogant Americans are,'' Supreme Guide Mostafa Mashhour told Reuters. ''This will get them all the hatred from Islamic nations in general.'' On the West Bank, Palestinian schoolboys marched through a refugee camp near Bethlehem shouting ''Clinton you coward, go look for women.'' Iraq's Gulf Arab neighbors voiced concern over the attack. An Oman Foreign Ministry spokesman, quoted by the official news agency ONA, urged Iraq to show more readiness to cooperate with the United Nations and called on the international community to exert immediate and comprehensive efforts to ensure a resumption of cooperation between Iraq and the United Nations. Kuwait hoped for a solution to the crisis with former occupier Iraq to avoid further regional tension and escalation. But analysts noted that a statement issued after an emergency cabinet meeting did not express clear support for the U.S. and British strikes against Iraq. The two powers led the 1991 Gulf War to end Iraq's occupation of the tiny Gulf Arab state where U.S. and British forces are deployed. Qatar said it was ''deeply concerned'' over the strikes and expressed hope that, as the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan approaches in the next few days, ''a peaceful solution to this crisis could be reached to spare the Iraqi people a lot of misery and suffering and the region more tension.'' Officials news agencies in the Gulf reported that Clinton sent messages to United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahayan and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, explaining the reasons behind the strikes. The raids were launched as the Muslim world awaited the start of Ramadan, which begins after religious authorities sight the new moon Friday or Saturday. Arab commentators poked fun at Clinton over the timing of the attacks just before the U.S. House of Representatives was due to vote on his impeachment for allegedly lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. ''For Monica Lewinsky they hit Afghanistan and Sudan. And now, for Monica's eyes, they hit Baghdad,'' said a commentator on Al-Jazeerah, an outspoken satellite channel beamed from Qatar. Arab news agencies reported extensively on the air raids and highlighted civilian casualties in a Baghdad residential area. Newspapers across the Gulf region, which are often dominated by the day-to-day doings of their rulers, ran banner headlines. Al-Khaleej, one of the Gulf's leading Arabic dailies, splashed a red headline which screamed ''Wide American-British aggression against Iraq -- Monicagate strikes again.'' In Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, newspapers voiced strong support for the suffering of the Iraqi people but blamed Saddam for dragging his country into another conflict.