Nations Around World, Except Iraq, Condemn Terror Attacks on US

17/04/2001| IslamWeb

LONDON (Islamicweb & News Agencies ) - Nations around the world, including U.S. foes Libya and Iran, condemned the terror attacks on the United States in which thousands of people may have died. (Read photo caption below)
Saddam Hussein's Iraq raised a dissenting voice, saying the United States deserved Tuesday's attacks in New York and Washington as the fruits ``of its crimes against humanity.''
Thousands of people may have died when the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center collapsed after two hijacked airliners smashed into one of the world's tallest buildings.
In Washington, another hijacked jet plunged into the Pentagon, the heart of the U.S. military establishment.
Leaders through Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America reacted with revulsion.
Photographs of the devastation dominated the front pages of newspaper around the world, while millions of people sat glued to their television screens as the catastrophe unfolded.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder condemned the attacks as a declaration of war on the civilized world.
``This day has changed the world. A terrible event, the scale of which we cannot yet appreciate,'' German President Johannes Rau told an audience in Helsinki.
The United States virtually closed down after the worst attack on American soil since Japan's raid on Pearl Harbor that brought the U.S. into World War Two 60 years ago.
``Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts,'' President Bush said in an address to the nation.
``Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.''
BUSH REASSURES NATION
But Bush sought to reassure the nation and said the country's financial institutions remained strong and the economy was open for business -- despite fears of a global recession.
Investors across the world snapped up safe assets like gold and U.S. Treasury bills after the attacks which left Wall Street smothered in smoke and rubble.
Air travel around the world was thrown into chaos as the United States closed its airports and borders and grounded its planes.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, regarded as a pariah by Washington, offered condolences at the ``horrific attacks.''
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami condemned the ``terrorist'' attacks on Iran's arch-foe and offered ``deep sympathy'' to the American nation.
``Terrorism is condemned and the international community should...take effective measures to eradicate it,'' the official IRNA news agency quoted Khatami as saying.
But Iraqi state television said: ``The American cowboy is reaping the fruits of his crimes against humanity.''
Egypt, Israel and European leaders from Britain to Russia broke off normal business for crisis meetings.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for a coordinated international response to terrorism.
Putin said in a telegram to President Bush that ``barbarous terrorist acts aimed against wholly innocent people cause us anger and indignation.''
``The entire international community should united in the struggle against terrorism,'' he said.
``This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism,'' Blair said after chairing a crisis meeting of Britain's special security committee.
NATO HOLDS EMERGENCY MEETING
NATO ambassadors met in emergency session in Brussels.
``Our message to those who perpetrated these unspeakable crimes is...clear: you will not get away with it,'' NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said after the meeting.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin sent a message to Bush expressing sympathy.
A U.S. official pointed a finger at Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, already accused by Washington of masterminding the coordinated bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998 in which more than 200 people died.
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers quickly denied that bin Laden, whom they are sheltering, was capable of launching Tuesday's attacks. Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar condemned the attacks as terrorist acts.
Forces fighting the Taliban launched a helicopter missile strike at Kabul airport early Wednesday, destroying two planes, a Pakistan-based Afghan news agency said.
Earlier, officials in Washington denied that the blasts were a retaliatory U.S. strike.
Pakistan, the main international backer of the Taliban, joined in the condemnation.
Israel, urged the world to fight Islamic terror.
Some Palestinians in the West Bank, angered over U.S. support for Israel, cheered the assaults on New York and Washington. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat condemned the attacks as a ``terrible act.''
``It's unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable,'' a visibly shaken Arafat said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking from his residence outside New York, said the attacks had traumatized the world, but he urged cool and reasoned judgement.
Pope John Paul called them an unspeakable horror which had thrust the United States into a dark and tragic moment.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Two hijacked commercial planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center on Tuesday morning, causing both 110-story landmarks to collapse in devastating clouds of flames and smoke and killing a 'tremendous number' of people starting their workday inside. Another, smaller building collapsed later in the afternoon. (Michael Sales/Reuters Graphic)