October 11, 2001	Thursday	Rajab 23, 1422

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DOHA, Oct 10: The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) on Wednesday opposed the spread of the US-led onslaught on the Taliban in Afghanistan to any other Muslim country.

The foreign ministers of the 57-member organization said in a joint statement at the end of an emergency meeting here that they “rejected that any Islamic or Arab country is attacked under the pretext of the fight against terrorism”.

The OIC did not condemn the US-led strikes on Afghanistan, but instead expressed “concern that they could cause victims among innocent civilians”.

It also demanded that the “territorial integrity and Islamic identity of Afghanistan be guaranteed”.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri on Tuesday predicted that his country could be next to face attack.

“We think that the United States may use this opportunity to...take vengeance against the Iraqi people because Iraq is not ready to surrender its territory to become a colony for the United States, Britain and Israel,” he told reporters.

Earlier Qatar’s Amir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, called for a united stance on terrorism.

Speaking on behalf of the ministers present, Sheikh Hamad also stressed the “need to provide concrete proof of the blame of presumed perpetrators” of last month’s attacks in the United States.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov echoed the OIC appeal, telling a special meeting of Russia’s upper house of parliament in Moscow: “The strikes against the territory of Afghanistan must be surgical. They must target specific individuals and not the Afghan people.”

At an earlier meeting in Doha on Tuesday, Arab League foreign ministers voiced support for the international fight against terrorism, but could not agree on a common position on the US-led military attacks on Afghanistan.

“We are all against international terrorism and we will not tolerate this phenomenon being linked to Islam,” Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa said.

“The UN should be the pivot of the fight against terrorism,” he said.

Asked about the League’s response to the military strikes on Afghanistan, Moussa said they “should be limited to what they (the Americans) consider to be military bases” and should “spare civilians”.

However, several other participants said the Arab nations had not adopted “a collective position” on the strikes against Afghanistan. “We did not reach a common stance,” said one minister.

QATARI AMIR: The Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who is head of the OIC, condemned the attacks on the United States, but said retaliation should not harm civilians.

“We assert our utter rejection of these attacks and assert that confronting them must not touch innocent civilians and must not extend beyond those who carried out those attacks,” said the amir in his opening remarks to the meeting.

Sheikh Hamad said the response to those who ordered the Sept 11 attacks must be founded on good evidence.

“This requires the existence of irrefutable evidence against the perpetrators and that military operations, after announcing the evidence, be limited to them alone,” said Sheikh Hamad.

ARAFAT: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called for international action to rid the world of terrorism and criticized Israel for exploiting the attacks on New York and Washington to launch new offensives against Palestinians.

Israel “is exploiting the American tragedy and the world’s preoccupation with it to escalate its aggression against our land and to reoccupy large parts of our liberated land”, Arafat said at the gathering.

Delegates said the OIC was not concerned about the fate of the Taliban.—Reuters\AFP