Stewart Stogel
Friday, Sept. 13, 2002

The 26-minute speech to the 2002 U.N. General Assembly (almost double the allotted time) only drew some brief and restrained applause in the cavernous chamber.

"It struck the right tone," claimed British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai followed up on the Bush theme later in the day when he addressed the U.N. body.

"The Afghan people, as the prime victim of war and violence and the front line fighters against terrorism particularly appreciate, honor and admire the friendly hand extended to them by the United States of America."

Karzai, like Bush, told the General Assembly that the war on terrorism still has a long way to go:

"The threats posed by the terrorist groups require resolute commitment on the part of all nations to fight this evil to the end."

While the Afghan president expressed his solidarity with Washington, Karzai pointedly did not mention Iraq when he spoke about the continuing war on terrorism.

Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf also used his time at the podium to offer lukewarm support to Washington, preferring to concentrate on the conflict in Kashmir and the Israel-Palestine struggle:

"Terrorist attacks must be condemned. But acts of terrorism by individuals or groups cannot be the justification to outlaw the just struggle of a people for self-determination and liberation from colonial or foreign occupation. Nor can it justify state terrorism."

Following up on U.N. chief Kofi Annan's speech that Washington should proceed cautiously before deciding to attack Baghdad, newly appointed French foreign minister Dominique De Villepin told the U.N. delegates:

"Faced with threats, the temptation may exist to forge blindly ahead. Force cannot be the sole response to these elusive adversaries that are constantly transforming."

De Villepin warned:

"Let us take care that our interventions do not give rise to new frustrations, do not produce new imbalances and spark fires which we cannot put out."

Late Thursday, a spokesman for Japanese Prime Junichiro Koizumi, who is also in New York to speak at the U.N., said that a war with Iraq should only be considered as "a last resort."

As he left U.N. headquarters Thursday afternoon, Iraq's U.N. ambassador Mohammed Aldouri slammed the Bush address:

"It seems to me that the U.S. president discovered that it's impossible to find any evidence that Iraq possesses or develops weapons of mass destruction and lacking any evidence to link Iraq to terrorism, he chooses to deceive the world and his own people by the longest series of fabrications that has ever been told by a leader of a nation."

Aldouri added:

"The U.S. president was successful in diverting the attention of the real threat of peace caused by his government's policies and its backing of Israel."

The rest of the Iraqi leadership was silent on the Bush address.

Neither the State Department nor visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres offered any reaction to the Aldouri allegations.

Peres and Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri are scheduled to address the General Assembly next week.

While in New York, Secretary of State Colin Powell will meet with the foreign ministers of the Security Council's permanent members (UK, France, Russia and China) to decide on how to proceed in addressing the challenges raised by President Bush on Thursday.

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