Posted on 07/16/2002 12:29:29 PM PDT by knighthawk
MANAMA -- Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, voiced opposition Tuesday to any U.S. military strike on Iraq, saying the sentiment was shared in the Arab world and by several European leaders.
"We do not support recourse to force against Iraq, whether the strike be American or any other. This position is shared by our Arab brothers and several European leaders," Defense Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmad al-Khalifa told ***Al-Ayyam*** newspaper as cited by AFP.
"We support the territorial integrity of Iraq and the unity of the Iraqi people. We are working so that this people live in security and prosperity. It's for the people to decide their future.
We don't want to get mixed up in the internal affairs of Iraq," Sheikh Khalifa said.
U.S. President George W. Bush has renewed a pledge to use "all tools" at his disposal to oust Iraqi counterpart Saddam Hussein, whom Washington accuses of developing weapons of mass-destruction.
The prospect of U.S. military action was further heightened after talks between Baghdad and the United Nations on the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq broke down earlier this month.
Sheikh Khalifa said relations between Bahrain, which Washington has designated a "major non-NATO ally," and the United States had not been negatively affected by the September 11 attacks. "Our strategic interests mean we have to cooperate with countries like the United States, considered today an influential country which has contributed in the past to solving crises like that in Kuwait and Iraq and others."
Between 4,000 and 5,000 Americans reside in Bahrain, the majority of them military personnel with the Fifth Fleet.
U.S. military personnel have been stationed here since Manama signed an agreement with Washington in the early 1970s granting the U.S. Navy facilities at the Al-Jufair naval base east of the capital.
Israel, on the other hand, is a whole other matter...
Too funny--that insult has a definite Middle Eastern air to it.
None of them are to be trusted or listened to let alone consulted on what has to be done.
This is a cruel joke.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.