As the Bush administration’s war preparations gain momentum, NATO officials say NATO will not participate in any preemptive strike on Iraq, because offensive action runs contrary to the founding principles of the North Atlantic alliance. And the foreign ministers from 20 Arab nations ended two days of talks in Cairo. They issued a resolution declaring their “total rejection of the threat of aggression on Arab nations, in particular Iraq, reaffirming that these threats to the security and safety of any Arab country are considered a threat to Arab national security.” The Arab League chief, Amr Moussa, warned that a war would open the gates of hell for the Middle East. The Cairo meeting is in sharp contrast to the broad Arab and international participation in the 1991 Gulf War to evict Iraq from its oil-rich neighbor Kuwait.