Qatar is not on board
[link|http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011023/1/1l01n.html|Where they stand]
Excerpt:
Qatar's foreign minister condemned Tuesday the US-led military strikes on Afghanistan as "unacceptable", after talks in the Iranian capital.
"The attacks against Afghanistan are unacceptable and we have condemned them. It is our clear position," Sheikh Hamad bin-Jassem bin-Jabr al-Thani said.
He was speaking to reporters here after a meeting between Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and Iranian President Mohammed Khatami.
"What is happening in Afghanistan concerns the Islamic world, and we think that the culprits of the September 11 attacks, no matter who they are, should be tried justly. We think that the Afghan people should not be the victims of these attacks," the foreign minister said.
On October 8, the day after the air strikes began in retaliation for the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, the emir said that he regretted them.
"We wish it hadn't come to this," he said after talks in Paris with French President Jacques Chirac. "We are in principle opposed to wars, opposed to seeing more victims falling."
Two days later, the foreign minister said Qatar would not let the United States use its airport facilities for its military operation against Afghanistan.
Qatar currently heads the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), after succeeding heavyweight Iran last year. Next month it hosts a key ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation.
