Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=04/17/03

TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=POST-WAR IRAQ

NUMBER=6-12906

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTRO: The meeting in Nasiriyah to discuss Iraq's political future and the hunt for weapons of mass destruction are the subject of many editorials in the world's press, as we hear now from V-O-A's _____________ in this week's World Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: We begin our sampling in France, where Le Figaro in Paris suggests:

VOICE: Iraq is the Yugoslavia of the Middle East . After the success achieved . by his armed forces, [President] Bush has no doubts: the military victory has created a momentum that will lead to a political success. But the meeting in Nasiriyah has already proven there are no easy answer.

TEXT: As for Franco-American relations, that is on the mind of Liberation, also in Paris.

VOICE: The future alone will tell whether President Bush will resist the pressure from his entourage to 'punish' France.

TEXT: In Italy, L'Unita in Rome takes a somewhat gloomy view of the immediate post-war period.

VOICE: Religious and ethnic clashes, political factions quarreling, anti-American protests, crime. The [situation] . shaping up in northern Iraq and especially in Mosul, day after day, is an explosive mix . that at least in these first days, seems unlikely to be controllable by the U-S troops that have been sent in a hurry from Kuwait .

TEXT: Moving to the Middle East, the Al Ahram Weekly from Cairo, gives this Egyptian view:

VOICE: The fall of the regime . has created a security and political vacuum. . What is still more serious is that after long years of living under the iron-fisted rule of Saddam . most Iraqis feel they are not qualified to participate in the decision-making process. Decades of coercion have deprived them of faith in themselves. .

TEXT: To Iraq's neighbor Saudi Arabia, where Al-Watan in Abha notes:

VOICE: The latest developments regarding [Iraq's] future and the new governing system indicates major differences among the various parties. . After the Nasyriah meeting, it became clear that the American Godfather is the one in charge of distributing authority among all the interested parties.

TEXT: But Mecca's Al-Nadwa is more encouraged, suggesting, "The first meeting of the Iraqi opposition parties in Nasyriah was very promising. Its success was a sign that Iraqis are eager to create their own future."

In Asia, China's Xinhua Daily Telegraph proposes that:

VOICE: Although . U-S troops declared that the main military actions were over on the 15th, the Iraqi people are still suffering from the aftermath of . war: chaos, looting and inflation.

TEXT: Turning to China's special administrative region of Hong Kong, the Economic Journal comments:

VOICE: The Iraqi interim authority will eventually be led by those who will not only have a decisive impact on the country's future, but who will also reflect a victory for either the neo-conservative Pentagon hawks or the moderate State Department doves.

TEXT: However, in Japan, Tokyo's huge Mainichi is much more optimistic.

VOICE: For the time being, the U-S military's administration of Iraq will be a realistic way to restore law and order from the confusion caused by the collapse of the Hussein regime. But the U-N should play a positive role in the reconstruction.

TEXT: The Hindustan Times of India suggests:

VOICE: As for democracy, the initial venture hasn't been a conspicuous success. Although a meeting of sorts was held, it was noteworthy for those who didn't turn up rather than for those who did. One of the notable absentees was . Ahmed Chalabi .Evidently, those who see a future for themselves in Iraq wouldn't like to be associated too closely with the Americans.

TEXT: As for the search for weapons of mass destruction, Lithuania's second largest daily Respublika puts it this way from Vilnius:

VOICE: The majority of the democratic world . does believe that Iraq's dictator was a threat, at least to his neighbors within . reach of his unconventional weapons. But a bigger part of the world needs material, not virtual proof of evil.

TEXT: In Greece, the influential To Vima in Athens runs this column noting that:

VOICE: . If no weapons of mass destruction are found . this war will stay in history as a war without cause. . It now becomes clear that the biochemical scare was simply a pretense to justify a war done for other reasons.

TEXT: Norway's Dagsavisen in Oslo comments:

VOICE: For the U-S, it is important to show that the campaign against Iraq was worth the price. The hunt for weapons of mass destruction is fully in progress. Since these weapons were the main reason for going to war, it is important to find them.

TEXT: That concludes this global editorial sampling on developments in post-war Iraq.

NEB/ANG/TW