EU/US: It would take an "extraordinary leap of faith" to believe that a US-led war on Iraq could make the Middle East more democratic, a top EU official said yesterday.
"Do I think the region is likely to be more democratic, more prosperous, more moderate if there is a war in Iraq?" asked Mr Chris Patten, EU Commissioner for External Affairs.
"That demands an extraordinary leap of faith, and I'm not sure that the way you make people more moderate in the region is by bombing Baghdad," he told reporters in Beirut.
Patten said the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, in his United Nations speech on Wednesday had made a "formidable case" against Iraq in the Security Council, but added that he did not think the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be easier to solve in the aftermath of a war.
Mr Powell also said in evidence before a United States Senate committee said on Thursday that overthrowing the Iraqi government could reshape the Middle East in ways that enhance US interests, and that the confrontation with Iraq should start to come to a head in a matter of days. Mr Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that attacking Iraq could cause "some difficulties" for the United States in other areas in the Middle East during the conflict and in the months immediately after a war.
But he added, "I think there is also the possibility that success could fundamentally reshape that region in a powerful, positive way that will enhance US interests, especially if in the aftermath of such a conflict, we are also able to achieve progress on the Middle East peace."
But Mr Patten yesterday warned: "I don't think it is a problem which is going to be made easier to solve if there is a military confrontation in Iraq," he told reporters on the last leg of a tour to Iran, Turkey and Lebanon.
"We will go on working and arguing for a political commitment by the international community to help solve that desperate, bloody feud, and I hope it isn't made more difficult by whatever happens in the Gulf," he added. - (Reuters)