In Amman, Jordanians watch CNN's Baghdad coverage Thursday morning. (AP)

By Thomas W. Lippman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 17, 1998; Page A29

Arab governments offered no immediate comment last night on the U.S. military attack on Iraq. But U.S. officials pointed to previous Arab criticism of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as evidence of support.

In his address to the nation, President Clinton referred to a statement issued last month by the six Arab countries along the Persian Gulf, along with Egypt and Syria, warning "that Iraq alone would bear responsibility for the consequences of defying the U.N." And White House national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger told reporters that Saudi Arabia and the other gulf states had reiterated the warning last week.

Although Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said that the United States did not solicit help from nations other than Britain in order to preserve the element of surprise for the attack, he added, without naming any specific countries, "If we needed it, we could certainly have other support."

Syria, Egypt and several other Arab countries joined the U.S.-led military coalition that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in the 1991 war, but they did so in response to a clear-cut Iraqi provocation – Iraq's annexation of Kuwait – that threatened them as well. Since then, Washington has struggled to maintain Arab support for its policy of containing Iraq, partly because of Arab concerns that innocent Iraqis are suffering because of U.N. economic sanctions.

Saudi Arabia has long advocated vigorous military action against Saddam Hussein but, for domestic reasons, has denied Washington permission to launch airstrikes from its territory.

Several Arab analysts said Clinton rose in Arab favor after his visit to the Gaza Strip Monday, in which he went further than any previous U.S. president in stoking Palestinian aspirations for an independent state.

As the Middle East awoke to word of the attack, commentators there condemned what they called U.S. aggression against Iraq and called it an attempt by Clinton to distract attention from the impending impeachment vote, Reuters reported.

"For Monica Lewinsky, they hit Afghanistan and Sudan. And now, for Monica's eyes, they hit Baghdad," said a commentator on Al-Jazeerah, an outspoken satellite channel beamed from Qatar.

In Iran, a foreign ministry spokesman said the attacks "will worsen the suffering of the Iraqi people and increase instability in the region," Reuters reported. Tehran called on the United Nations to halt the strikes.

Arab and U.S. analysts said that in ordering the attack yesterday, Clinton took advantage of an unusually propitious set of military and political circumstances in the Middle East that seemed likely to minimize negative reactions from Arab countries.

In particular, as Clinton said in his televised address to the nation last night, by striking now U.S. and British forces avoided military action during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which will begin this weekend.

"For us to initiate military action during Ramadan would be profoundly offensive to the Muslim world and, therefore, would damage our relations with Arab countries and the progress we have made in the Middle East," said Clinton, who throughout his presidency has declared his respect for Islam and has sought to convince Muslims that U.S. hostility to Iraq and Iran was not about religion.

"That is something we wanted very much to avoid," Clinton said, adding that he also did not want to hold off for an entire month and give Iraq "a month's head start to prepare for potential action against it."

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is the month in which the first verses of the Koran were revealed to the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century and in which Muhammad's forces achieved their first great military victory over the pagans who then inhabited the Arabian peninsula. This year it is scheduled to begin either Saturday night or Sunday night, depending on when religious authorities sight the rising of the new moon.

During Ramadan, Muslims are forbidden to eat, drink or smoke during daylight hours. As a consequence, life is turned upside down as Muslims feast and pray late into the night. A nocturnal air raid in Iraq during Ramadan would run the risk of striking a mosque crowded with worshipers and increase the risk of hitting civilians as they drive or stroll through Iraq's cities, analysts said yesterday.

Islamic history is replete with military conflicts that began or continued during Ramadan, including Egypt's attack on Israel at the start of the 1973 war, which occurred not only in Ramadan but on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.

Several Arab diplomats and journalists said yesterday that attacking during the holy month would not necessarily have stirred widespread Muslim opposition, but coupled with yesterday's U.S. indictments of five more Muslims accused of working with suspected Saudi Arabian terrorist Osama bin Laden, it could have become an irritant to Muslims suspicious of U.S. intentions.

The imminence of Ramadan, however, is just one of several reasons why the regional atmospherics are relatively favorable to an attack on Iraq now, U.S. officials and Arab diplomats said.

With his visit to Gaza, said one Arab diplomat, "The president gave all kinds of respect and hope and raised the expectations of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian card is not in the hands of Saddam Hussein."

Clinton also has the advantage of attacking Iraq at a time when world oil prices are near their lowest in two decades. As usual when uncertainty hangs over the Persian Gulf region, oil prices spiked briefly yesterday, but the conflict appears unlikely to have a lasting upward impact.

Turkey, Iraq's northern neighbor, is between governments and not in a position to object to the strikes. Turkey favors the restoration of a strong central government in Iraq.

The State Department last night warned Americans to increase security precautions and reevaluate plans to travel to the Middle East – especially to Kuwait and Israel.