Fissures develop in pro-U.S. alliance

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, SEPT. 15. After the initial show of solidarity, several of the U.S. allies are reported to be less enthusiastic about going the whole hog with the Bush administration's military action to hunt down the perpetrators of Tuesday's catastrophe in New York and Washington.

In Britain, the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, continued to be under pressure not to sign a ``blank cheque'' and in his speech in Parliament on Friday he was careful to stress that he believed a decision on the nature retaliation would be based on hard evidence and taken in a ``calm, considered and careful way''.

Yet, Mr. Blair remained by far the most vocal supporter of any U.S. retaliatory action while elsewhere in Europe caution was emerging as the buzz word amid growing fears that anything that might smack of an attack on the Muslim world could have serious foreign policy implications vis-a-vis the West Asia. Mr. Chris Patten, E.U. commissioner, echoed these fears saying that while the U.S. could count on Europe's `strong' support there was need to look beyond Europe. ``Samuel Huntington's thesis about the clash of civilisations (Christianity vs Islam) must not be allowed to become self- fulfilling. We should not try to mobilise the resources of the northern and western worlds against all others,'' he wrote in The Guardian today.

In France, where there are nearly six million Muslims, differences have been reported between the Socialist Prime Minister, Mr. Lionel Jospin, and the President, Mr. Jacques Chiraq, with the latter taking a more overtly pro-U.S. line. Mr. Jospin, on the other hand, has indicated opposition to automatic support to any U.S. military action. ``Our humane, political and functional solidarity (with the U.S.) does not deprive us of our sovereignty and freedom to make up our minds,'' he said.

While calling for strong action against terrorists, he cautioned against a ``conflict between the Western world and the Islamic world where we have many friends and partners''.

Observers said that with Presidential election due next year, French politicians would not like to be seen doing anything that might alienate the domestic Muslim population. France, they pointed out, was likely to be particularly averse to endorsing a military strike against Iraq because of its growing business ties with Baghdad.

In Germany, the Defence Minister, Mr. Rudolf Scharping, raised the question of what should be regarded as an `appropriate' response to Tuesday's terrible events. The response, he told German television, should not take the form of ``revenge and retribution''. The idea should be to fight and break international terror. The Foreign Minister, Mr. Joschka Fischer, however, was more outspoken in his support.

According to commentators, the overall sense in European capitals was that while they strongly supported the U.S. resolve to hunt down the terrorists behind the attacks in New York and Washington, the issue should not be posed as ``West vs the Islamic world''.

Significantly, a leading E.U. anti-terrorism expert has raised doubts whether Osama bin Laden in indeed the man behind the American nightmare. Mr. Jurgen Storbeck, director of Europol, told The Daily Telegraph that Osama was ``not the automatic leader of every terrorist act carried out in the name of Islam''. ``If one wants to avoid error, one must ensure that the investigation has a wide scope,'' he said.

The British media, meanwhile, highlighted the strong Russian opposition to allowing bases in Central Asia for an attack on Afghanistan. ``I don't see any basis for even the hypothetical possibility of NATO military operations on the territory of Central Asian nations that belong to the Commonwealth of Independent States,`` said the Russian Defence Minister, Mr. Sergei Ivanov, setting at rest speculation that Russia and its allies would help U.S. mount a military operation against Afghanistan.

According to The Guardian, the increasing sense of caution among U.S. allies suggested that ''first cracks`` had begun to appear in the U.S. President, Mr. George W.Bush's ''fledgling international coalition against terrorism...`` Peace groups in Britain called for resistance against what one activist termed as a ''gung-ho`` reaction to Tuesday's events.

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Section  : International
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