S. African President Regrets US-led War on Iraq 

PEOPLE'S DAILY (Beijing ) 20mar03

South African President Thabo Mbeki early Thursday morning expressed his regret that the US-led war on Iraq had started.

The president would have preferred the matter to be dealt with by the United Nations rather, said presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo.

He said the war "is a blow to multilateralism."

New National Party (NNP) foreign affairs spokesman Boy Geldenhuys said the NNP hopes the war would be over quickly, even though it seemed unlikely.

"We hope the targets will be the military targets and not civilians," he said.

The spokesman said he was watching events as they unfolded on television and the NNP had from the very start believed the United States was going to attack unilaterally.