Following is a letter sent by Huda Ismail Nawwab to the French, Russian and Chinese missions at the United Nations.

Dear Sirs,

I’m a young Saudi Arab woman who supports peace among humankind.

I appeal to you, the French, Russian and Chinese missions to the United Nations, to veto — in your capacity as permanent members of the Security Council — the forthcoming proposal to pass a Security Council resolution sponsored by the United States and Britain to launch a war on Iraq for alleged non-compliance with UN resolu-tions on disarmament. Peace-loving people everywhere in the world oppose such a war. This very day (Feb. 15) there are anti-war demonstrations representing a rainbow of faith, color, languages and races in over 600 cities all over the world, including the larg-est demonstration ever in London.

The firm stand of France, Russia and China at the Security Council has won the admiration of the world, especially the powerful, reasoned and spirited views of French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin expressed at the Security Council meeting on Feb. 14.

I must also add that the anti-war position of your three countries (and that of Germany as well) against the aggressive stance of the US and Britain will resonate very well not only with peace seekers everywhere, but also with the more than 1.25 billion Muslims, some of whom are citizens of your countries.

The vast majority of Americans are peace-loving and do not support military adventures, but the Bush administration is leading a desperate, unwise effort to launch an unwarranted war of aggression against Iraq allegedly in the name of peace and democracy.

However, don’t you think that by doing so, the US and Britain will claim the lives of many thousands of innocent civilians whose only crime is that they happen to have been born in unfortunate times and in an unfor-tunate country? What crime have these suf-fering people committed, many of them old men and women and children?

The US administration’s stance on Iraq is the height of hypocrisy. If the US adminis-tration wants to ensure non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, it should first of all set an example to the world: It should disarm the US. Instead, it has opted to produce even more lethal weapons of mass destruction.

The US administration sensibly says that it will try to resolve peacefully the very seri-ous problem posed by North Korea, which has announced its intention to produce more nuclear weapons and has booted out the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors. It’s a case far worse than that of Iraq, which is cooperating with the UN inspectors. So, why not negotiate a peaceful resolution with Iraq?

The US and Britain both keep repeating ad nauseam that Iraq has flouted UN resolu-tions and therefore force has to be used to enforce those resolutions. Are the US and other permanent members of the Security Council — who are all ultimately complicit in the dispossession and oppression of the Palestinians — blind to the fact that Israel, thanks to the shameless backing and vetoes of the US at the Security Council, is in breach of some 60 resolutions of the world body? Can any one of you identify a single resolu-tion about which the UN Security Council took an enforceable action in order to bring Israeli policy into accord with the will of the international community?

Why these double standards, which are a blot on the United Nations and a blow to its credibility? The US and Israel are two bulls in the United Nations’ china shop, which, unless reined in, will eventually wreck it altogether.

For the Bush administration, time for Iraq "has run out." But, apparently, for the Bush administration and for the Security Council time can never run out for the rogue state of Israel, whose violations of UN resolu-tions and the Fourth Geneva Convention and perpetration of state terrorism have gone on for more than 50 years and whose never-inspected biological, chemical and nuclear weapons destabilize regional peace.

Successive British governments, and Prime Minister Tony Blair — that lackey of the US and great hypocrite whose support of the US’ belligerence against Iraq is opposed by the majority of the people who elected him — consider the Irish Republican Army to be a terrorist organization, which has always received funds from the Irish in the US. The IRA has for several decades terrorized London and other British cities and assas-sinated the respectable Lord Mountbatten, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, and attempted to kill Margaret Thatcher, then Britain’s prime minister. But did Britain bomb the IRA in Ireland and also the US, the main supplier of funds to the IRA? No, sensibly Britain worked hard to resolve its differences with the IRA peacefully.

Aren’t all human beings equal in respect to life and death? Or is Arab and Muslim blood cheaper than the blood of people who come from Western ethnic backgrounds? It is such racial attitudes which inflame those already oppressed in Muslim lands and unfortunately and inexorably nurture the hotbeds of hatred and violence.

Today, the credibility and prestige of the United Nations is on the line. It’s you who can save the world body, the hope of peace for all humanity, from the arrogance and warmongering of the US, which is exerting all the pressure it can to impose its will and agenda for world hegemony on all members of the Security Council. Please act to show that might is not right and that there are states with backbone who are willing to stand up for the principles of justice and peace in international relations.

France, Russia and China are the only three permanent members of the Security Council who could really make a difference by casting their veto against a US-led war on Iraq.

So, please act now and in the coming days in the interest of world peace and your own citizens.

With the utmost regard for France, Russia and China and other Security Council members who are working hard to ensure that the credibility of the United Nations is maintained and justice and the rule of law prevail,

Sincerely,

Huda Ismail Nawwab

Arab News Opinion 18 February 2003