DUBAI, January 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore warned against the grave repercussions if U.S. war threats to Iraq were to materialize, saying that any potential war in Iraq would be between the world community and the Arab country.

“There is an uncertainty associated with a war on Iraq that also weighs heavily on the economy: not knowing what consequences (the war might have), what a post-war Iraq would look like, what effect there would be on world markets and what the Arab street reaction would be,” Gore was quoted by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying in the Second Gulf Economic Forum launched here on Saturday, January 11.

Gore who has accused Washington of losing focus in its war on terrorism by erroneously pinpointing Iraq, praised the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council for its anti-terror stance.

Any war in Iraq would “not be between the United States and Iraq but the world community and Iraq,” stressed Gore, U.S. President George W. Bush’s rival in the 2000 presidential election.

Nobody could justify, he said, the “reign Saddam Hussein has been responsible for in Iraq and his failure to comply with resolutions ... (after which) he embarked on a mission to build weapons of mass destruction.”

Gore, who won the popular vote for president two years ago but failed to gain enough electoral college votes to win the White House, rounded on the Bush administration, saying its desire to seek “military dominance of political adversaries was wrong.”

Mussa Says Iraq War Will Open “Pandora’s Box”

In a related development, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa warned Saturday that a war in Iraq would open up a “Pandora’s box” of problems in a region already frustrated by Israel's policies against the Palestinians.

The region is “facing unprecedented political changes with a possible war on Iraq,” Mussa said in a speech delivered on his behalf to Forum in Dubai.

A potential U.S.-led conflict with Iraq over its alleged weapons of mass destruction would “open up a Pandora’s box of problems in a region already frustrated by Israeli policies against Palestinians.”

The Arab League was “working very hard to avoid war in Iraq ... and the devastating economic and social fallout it would bring,” Mussa said.