International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, September 15, 2002

The United States’ support for Israel and its desire to attack Iraq is racially motivated, said Nelson Mandela, 84, the former leader of South Africa, in an interview with Newsweek magazine last week.

"What we know is that Israel has weapons of mass destruction. Nobody talks about that. Why should there be one standard for one country, especially because it is black, and another one for another country, Israel, that is white."

Neither Bush nor [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair has provided any evidence that weapons exist in Iraq, Mandela said.

"When there were white secretary generals you didn't find this question of the United States and Britain going out of the United Nations. But now that you've had black secretary-generals like Boutros Boutros Ghali, like Kofi Annan, they do not respect the United Nations. They have contempt for it."

"Well, there is no doubt that the United States now feels that they are the only superpower in the world and they can do what they like," Mandela said. "The attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace."