MIDDLE EAST: There is near unanimous Arab and Muslim opposition to the new Security Council resolution. Islamists, secularists, leftists, nationalists and pro-Western figures argue that if it leads to war, the conflict could destabilise the entire region.
Widespread popular hostility towards the US and Britain could also provoke a backlash against some Arab leaders.
Muhammad Sid Ahmad, a left-wing commentator, asked in Egypt's semi-official newspaper Al-Ahram: "Has World War III begun?" In his view, it was US policy on Israel and Palestine which led to the September 11th attacks.
On the right, Abdel Wahhab Badrakhan, writing in the Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, said President Bush would see his party's mid-term election success as a vindication of his policies. "If he had any hesitation about going to war . . . this victory will have dispelled it for good. The voters told him: 'Go to Iraq, occupy it and whatever will be will be'."
Another Middle East newspaper, Al-Quds al-Arabi, was disappointed with the failure of US voters to "clip the wings . . . of the \ hawks". Instead, the editorial writer continued: "American public opinion dashed our hopes and undermined the arguments of many like us who make a distinction between the American people and the US government, and do not blame the former ..."
The Qatari newspaper Ash-Sharq warned that Mr Bush, strengthened by Congressional backing, should be "more cautious" in the exercise of his country's overwhelming power,"for might unmitigated by wisdom can open the gates of hell".
Arab commentators point out that the success of the Islamists in three elections in Pakistan, Turkey and Bahrain should serve as a warning to the US and Britain that a conflict could end the rule of pro-Western regimes.
Analysts highlight the refusal of the leader of Turkey's Islamist Justice and Development Party, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to agree to US use of the country's military bases as a launching pad for a war on Iraq.
