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afrol News, 30 January - South African ex-President Nelson Mandela at a conference blasted US policies towards Iraq, saying it was all about oil. A unilateral attack on Iraq may lead the world into a "holocaust", he said. Also the current South African administration is increasingly rejecting US polices on Iraq. Mr Mandela made his latest attack on US unilateralism at an International Women's Forum in Johannesburg. Also British Prime Minister Tony Blair was attacked for approving an attack on Iraq without a proper UN authorisation. The popular South African however did not rule out a rightful, UN-led assault on Iraq. He said that if the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein was "not carrying out the UN instructions and resolutions," he would support the UN "without resignation, but what I condemn is one power with a president who can't think properly and wants to plant the world into holocaust," Mr Mandela said. He added that war "would be devastating not just to Iraq but also to the whole of the Middle East and to other countries of the world." The ex-President feared both the human suffering in Iraq and the consequences for regional stability of attacking Iraq and at the same time supporting Israel. Naming the US "arrogant" and Mr Blair a "US Foreign Minister," the Nobel Peace Price winner asked: why US was behaving this way. "Their friend Israel has got weapons of mass destruction but because it's their ally they won't ask the UN to get rid of them. They just want the oil. We must expose this as much as possible," he concluded. The sharp attacks by Mr Mandela found broad appeal among South Africans. Most of the political parties applauded the ex-President's speech, although the conservative Democratic Alliance (DA) "respectfully" disagreed with the ex-Head of State. Also the country's leading trade union, COSATU, which is closely connected to the ANC ruling party, has forcefully spoken out against current US policies. COSATU spokesman Vukani Mde earlier this week stressed its increased discomfort over US "two-faced" foreign policies. - Also disturbing is the fact that Israel, the US's number one client state, continues to secretly develop weapons of mass destruction with impunity, the COSATU spokesperson said. "Because of its decades-old oppression of the Palestinian people, Israel still remains the leading clear and present cause of instability in the Middle East," he added. The world should be concerned by "the threat from the Bush gang to jettison the entire UN system in pursuit of dangerous unilateral military action in the most volatile region of the world," he concluded. President Thabo Mbeki has also voiced an increasingly stronger opposition to US plans of an Iraq invasion. Together with civil society, President Mbeki has called for anti-war protests and tomorrow, he is meeting with British Prime Minister Blair. According to a government statement, the meeting was to be held within "the context of worldwide efforts to avert a war with Iraq." In his weekly letter on the ANC website, President Mbeki called on all South Africans to join the international peace movement. "We have insisted that the Iraq question must be solved through the United Nations," wrote the President. "The UN exists because of a global commitment to regulate the power of the powerful, in the interests of international peace and justice," he added.
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