Patrick Goodenough, CNSNews.com
Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003

Addressing a gathering of Asia-Pacific lawmakers in Kuala Lumpur Monday, Mahathir said the Muslim world's unity in the face of Iraqi aggression had disappeared. Today, "Muslims see the stance taken against Iraq as another act of discrimination against Muslims," he said.

"We do not want to see North Korea being threatened with war and the country being militarily attacked, but the accommodating attitude towards North Korea [in contrast to Iraq] is going to anger the Muslims more."

Mahathir told 170 delegates to the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum that a U.S.-led attack on Iraq would boost the number of recruits to international terrorism. At the same time, he repeated his long-held assertion that the Palestinian cause was "the principal reason" for terrorism.

Mahathir, Asia's longest-serving leader and a perennial critic of U.S. policies, is expected to retire late this year.

Before then, Malaysia takes over the chairmanship of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a grouping of the world's 57 Muslim or mostly Muslim countries.

State Department spokesmen have for weeks faced queries at regular press briefings about the contrasting approaches the U.S. is taking towards Baghdad and Pyongyang.

"Each case has a different context," spokesman Philip Reeker said in one recent briefing. "Each case involves different histories, different players, and you can't just take a cookie-cutter approach to the diplomacy or the how to deal with them."

Reeker also argued that, in both cases, the U.S. is working through United Nations bodies, principally the Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Copyright CNSNews.com

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