AP: Recent Events Fuel Arab Ire Toward U.S. ~

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Saddam Hussein's unruly execution, gunbattles in Iraq and U.S. airstrikes on Somalia are increasing hostility toward America in the Arab world and deepening the Shiite-Sunni divide. The conflicts in Iraq and Somalia are not directly connected, but this week's U.S. strikes in the Horn of Africa country are feeding a fear among Sunni Muslim Arabs that a growing campaign is challenging their historic dominance of the Middle East.

In Somalia, the assault is seen as coming from mainly Christian Ethiopia, whose troops swept in to topple the hard-line Islamic Sunni group that had seized control of much of the country. In Iraq, the threat comes from Shiites, brought to power by the U.S. invasion and backed by Iran.

The Ethiopian invasion, "backed completely by the United States and Israel, ... has led to the occupation of a nation that is a member of the Arab League for more than 30 years, yet no one in the Arab world has moved," columnist Fahmi Huweidi wrote Wednesday in the Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

"Anything has become permitted as long as the goal is to strike Islamic radicals, even if it leads to the occupation of an Arab nation and the defiling of its political honor, making it a morsel for the Americans, Ethiopians and Israelis," he said.

The editor in chief of the Islamic Banner, an Egyptian goverment religious newspaper, went further, calling President Bush "Dracula .. thirsty for the blood of Arabs and Muslims."

"He invaded Afghanistan ... then he invaded Iraq. Now I wake up to the news of U.S. forces striking Somalia, killing dozens of Muslims," Mohammed al-Zarqani wrote. "Will Somalia become another Iraq or Afghanistan? The Dracula of the modern age is determined that it will."

Reaction from Arab governments was muted over the American strikes in Somalia this week. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday said "there should be caution in using force against civilians."

Somalia lies on the outer rim of the Arab world, is not connected to the Sunni-Shiite division in the region. But the conflict there adds to the view among some Sunni Arabs that they are under siege - a fear largely fueled by the conflict in Iraq. There has long been a sentiment that the Arab world is flanked by three enemies - Christian Ethiopia from south, Iranian-backed Shiites from the west and Jewish Israel in its midst.

The 2003 U.S.-led war to topple Saddam's Sunni-run regime in Iraq has rekindled the centuries-old divide between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and the suspicions have grown dramatically stronger since Saddam's Dec. 30 execution.

In Friday prayers in the Qatari capital, influential Sunni cleric Sheik Youssef Qaradawi accused Iraq's Shiite government of "a genocide" against Sunnis and appealed to the Sunni world to intervene.

In Saudi Arabia, the religious establishment - rooted in the hard-line Wahhabi stream of Sunni Islam - has stepped up its anti-Shiite rhetoric. Last month, about 30 clerics called on Sunnis around the Middle East to support their brethren in Iraq against Shiites and praised the insurgency. Later, Saudi cleric Abdul Rahman al-Barak declared Shiites around the world to be infidels who should be considered worse than Jews or Christians.

Newspapers and television talk shows, especially in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are filled with anti-Shiite rhetoric. In its latest edition, Egypt's state-owned Rose El-Youssef weekly carried a cover story on Saddam's execution with a banner headline: "Raising the ugly face of Shiites, expanding Iranian influnce in the region."

"Saddam's execution unmasked the Persian hatred against Arabs and revealed the true affiliation of the (Shiite) militia-government in Baghdad," wrote Ghassan Al-Immam in the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat paper Tuesday.

Montasser el-Zayat, a lawyer and former member of the Egyptian militant group Gamaa Islamiya, warned that the sectarian divisions unleashed in Iraq - by the U.S. invasion, in his view - could spark similar splits in other Arab nations.

"The example set in Iraq will spread into other countries in the region," he said in an interview with the Associated Press. "We (in Egypt) have Coptic Christians and Nubians, Algerians and Moroccans have Berbers, and Saudi Arabia has Shiites. What will we do with them?"

Last week, el-Zayat held a memorial ceremony for Saddam at Cairo's Lawyers Syndicate, where several speakers warned of a Shiite-Iranian-American and Israeli conspiracy against Sunnis.

El-Zayat insists Sunnis should rally behind even autocratic governments if necessary to confront the Shiite rise.

"The tyrant who unites the nation and closes its ranks is much better than the weak ruler who is not able to defend the nation," he wrote in the Qatari Al-Raia newspaper.

"It is understandable and even justifiable to fear Iran and its policies ... but what is not justified ... is the abusive language and racist expressions which are being used against the Iranians," wrote columnist Hazem Saghiyeh in the Arab daily Al-Hayat.

CAMERA staff prompted a correction at the Associated Press, after the wire service again misreported the details of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. The amended language makes clear the differences between the actual wording of 242 and the “Arab interpretation” of the resolution:

Error (Associated Press, Salah Nasrawi, 3/18/05): The Jordanian proposal is meant to amend a Saudi peace initiative adopted at the 2002 Arab summit held in Beirut, which offered Israel peace with all Arab nations on condition it returns all land seized in the six-day war of 1967 - including East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria's Golan Heights - in line with U.N. resolutions 242 and 338. [emphasis added]

Correction (Updated story, 3/18/05): The Saudi initiative offered Israel peace with all Arab nations on condition that Israel returns all land seized in the six-day war of 1967 in line with the Arab interpretation of U.N. resolution 242. [emphasis added]
The initiative also calls for the creation of a Palestinian state and a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue. Resolution 242, passed after the 1967 war, calls on Israel to withdraw "from territories occupied in the recent conflict" but does not say explicitly that the pullback should be from all such territories. However, Arabs view the resolution as just that - calling for Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria's Golan Heights.

While AP's Middle East coverage is still problematic, this same-day correction is a positive sign that the influential media outlet may be taking more seriously its journalistic responsibilities to "acknowledge substantive errors and correct them promptly."

Lawmaker Warns Saudi Arabia against Crisis

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An Iranian MP here on Wednesday warned Saudi Arabia against the adoption of provocative measures, stressing that any regional crisis will be detrimental to Riyadh's interests as well.

Speaking to FNA, member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Heshmatollah Felahat-Pisheh pointed to the recent warning of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei about the appearance of an anti-Iran coalition by the US, Britain and some regional Arab states, and mentioned, "They are seeking to take Iran into a critical condition."

"They actually aim to forge a situation similar to the Taef Plan in 1982, when some western and Arab countries hatched a plot against Iran," he reminded.

"The Supreme Leader's warning was meant to remind the other party that final result of the Taef plan was nothing but the defeat of Saddam's autocrat rule," the lawmaker added.

Stressing that Iran does not welcome crisis, he said, "The Iranian foreign minister in recent days has sent several messages to the western countries to voice Iran's preparedness to attend talks as we believe that negotiation is the final path for the settlement of Iran's nuclear issue."

The legislative official further pointed out that there won't arise any crisis in the region unless regional countries pave the ground, cause or act as the means for the creation of such a crisis.

He reminded that some Arab countries of the region have earlier served as the means and channels for the crises that Saddam Hussein created, and said, "The said crises inflicted huge damage on the region."

The MP warned that if any crisis arises, it won't be only Iran but all the regional countries which will have to sustain the inherent harms and damage of such a crisis.

"If Arab states do not play a negative role, Iran can reach compromise with other countries," he stated.

Referring to Saudi Arabia's role in sowing discord between the Muslim Shiites and Sunnites and deteriorating violence in Iraq as well as its negative stances in the face of the Israeli war against Lebanon, the official warned Saudi officials that they will also have to sustain the damage if any crisis emerges in the region.

"Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia did not continue the role which it took up at the time of Malek Abdullah and brought some profound and sudden changes to its foreign policy strategy instead," he mentioned, adding that the country's new strategy is based on sowing discord.

"performance of such a role which is practiced in the form of a regional strategy has been imposed by trans-regional states," the representative of Islam abad-e Gharb at the Islamic Consultative Assembly underscored.

Warning the neighboring countries about the consequences and aftermaths of sowing discord among Muslim Shiites and Sunnites and participating in an anti-Iran coalition, he said, "Regional countries are more in need of mutual understanding than confrontation. Therefore, if western powers choose the path to the enhancement of understanding, they will win success, otherwise, they will have to face continued crises in the region, which will result in their failure."

He called on regional states to give up any factor or measure of threat and invited them to move towards a diplomatic convention and understanding instead.

The parliament member further reminded that the plans devised and practiced by Arab countries have so far turned to be unsuccessful due to the fact that they have ignored Iran's role and served to be of a merely Arab nature.

"There is a reality in the Persian Gulf which is named Iran, thus, no Arab plan will be successful in the region unless it heeds Iran's role. We expect Arab countries to reach understanding with Iran to solve regional problems and not to turn the region into a battlefield for the wars of trans-regional states," he concluded.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8510200444

OPINION

Dawn of a new Middle East Order

MAI YAMANI
10-Jan-07

SOMETIME this month, President George W Bush will _ reluctantly _ announce a new policy for the United States in Iraq. A new policy is needed not only in order to halt America's drift into impotence as it tries to prevent Iraq from spiralling into full-scale civil war, but also because the map of power in the Middle East has changed dramatically.

That map has been in constant flux for the last 60 years, during which the main players _ Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel, and Iran _ have formed and broken alliances. Now, something like a dividing line is emerging, and if Bush finally begins to understand the region's dynamics, he may be able to craft a policy with a chance of success.

This regional realignment is typified by the emergence of a de facto alliance that dare not speak its name. Israel and Saudi Arabia, seemingly the most unlikely of allies, have come together to contain their common enemy _ Iran, with its mushrooming influence in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. Iran not only threatens Israel (and the region) with its desire for a nuclear capability and its Shi'a proxy militants, it is also seeking to usurp the traditional role of moderate Sunni Arab regimes as the Palestinians' defenders.

After decades of using concern for the Palestinian cause to shore up popular support for their own ineffective and undemocratic regimes, these moderate Arab leaders have now been put on the defensive by Iran's quest for hegemony. If Iran succeeds in being seen as the genuine patron of Palestinian national aspirations, it will also succeed in legitimising its claim for dominance in the Middle East.

Israel, a country in shock following its failure to destroy Hezbollah last summer, and humiliated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejhad's vow to "wipe Israel off the map" _ a threat backed up by Iran's support of Hamas and Hezbollah _ now talks about a "quartet of moderates" as the region's only hope. Indeed, Israel now sees its security as relying not so much on a US guarantee, but on Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey (which is seeking regional influence in fear of rejection by the European Union) restraining Iran and its paid proxies. According to Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres, Israel hopes to isolate and contain the Shi'a/Farsi spheres of power by forging open cooperation with the Sunni/Arab domain.

Saudi Arabia is just as eager to contain the Iranian threat and the growing "Shi'a crescent" that, with the empowerment of the Shi'a in Iraq, has moved westward to begin to include the Shi'a regions of the Kingdom. So it should be no surprise that the Saudi regime was the first to condemn Shi'a Hezbollah at the start of the war with Israel, and that it announced in December that it would support Iraq's Sunnis militarily should a precipitate US withdrawal incite a Sunni/Shi'a civil war there.

The Shi'a threat to the Saudi government is ideological. Indeed, it goes to the heart of the Saudi state's authority, owing to the Al Saud royal family's reliance on Wahhabi Islam to legitimate its rule. Since the Wahhabis consider the Shi'a apostates, the challenge from the Shi'a _ both within and without Saudi Arabia _ represents a mortal threat.

So Saudi Arabia is ready to cooperate with Israel not only against Iran, but also against other "radicals", such as Hamas. Remarkably, Palestine's Hamas prime minister, Ismael Haniyeh, was not received in Saudi Arabia in December, when he was travelling through the region pleading for support for his beleaguered government. Conservative Saudi Arabia prefers dealing with traditional and predictable leaders, such as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Lebanon's premier, Fouad Siniora, rather than firebrand populist leaders like Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas' Khalid Meshal, and Iran's Ahmadinejhad.

Last year, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, worried by Shi'a expansionism, was persuaded by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the head of his National Security Council, to coordinate policy with Israel to counter Iran's growing influence. Israel, after all, is a "reliable enemy" for Saudi Arabia, having destroyed Nasser's Egyptian army in 1967 _ a time when the Saudis were fighting Egypt by proxy in Yemen. So Prince Turki al-Faysal, the long time head of Saudi intelligence, has met with Meir Dagan, the head of Israel's Mossad, while Bandar met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jordan the same month.

Yet covert support from Israel, America and the Saudis for Abbas and Siniora does little to help them in their domestic battles. From Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Sudan to Bahrain and Yemen _ indeed, throughout the Muslim world from Jakarta to Nigeria _ Islamic radicals have won the popularity sweepstakes.

A recent poll in Egypt ranked Nasrallah, Meshal and Ahmadinejhad as the three most popular figures. This leads to an unavoidable dilemma: Bush will have to choose between supporting democracy and backing those who want to fight Islamic radicalism.

Yet Israel, America, and the region's moderates can benefit from the deepening schism in the Arab/Muslim world. That schism is being consolidated by Saudi support of all the region's Sunni Muslims. It is this sense of "Sunni solidarity" that is becoming the decisive factor in the war for the soul of Islam and in the struggle for mastery in the Middle East that is now underway.

Mai Yamani is an author and broadcaster. Her most recent book is Cradle of Islam.

Project Syndicate

http://www.bruneitimes.com.bn/details.php?shape_ID=16604

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.