Free Republic

www.sana-syria.com/english/headlines/03-5/arab_secretariat_for_arab_partie.h tm The General Secretariat of the Arab Parties held Monday its 20th session under the name of / Sheikh Ahmad Yassin/ Course which was headed by Chairman of the Arab Parties Conference Isaac Farhan. In a speech delivered by Farhan, he underlined that the conference which includes representatives for Arab and political parties is a turning point in our political life that faces threats and complications. He also rejected the so-called the age of America and Zionism which considers legitimate resistance as terrorism and vice versa. For his part, Secretary General of the Arab Socialist Union Party in Syria...

Arab foreign ministers adjourned a four-day meeting Thursday without producing a unified position outlining how to reform their societies, officials said of what essentially was to be an Arab response to the Bush administration's strategy for opening up the Middle East. The ministers "agreed to have further discussions on these ideas and plans," Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohammed Benaissa said at a press conference after the meetings. He said the ministers would discuss the matter again when they hold a final gathering in Tunisia just before an Arab leadership summit March 29-30. "The whole matter will be discussed in Tunis," Arab...

ABU DHABI [MENL] -- China has sought to improve defense and military relations with Arab League states. Beijing has recently held high-level defense and military talks with three Arab countries in what diplomatic sources said was a Chinese effort to renew weapons sales and cooperation with allies in the Middle East. The sources said Chinese arms sales declined sharply over the last two years. In December 2003, China held talks with Kuwait, Sudan and Syria. In Damascus, a high-level Chinese military delegation discussed a series of projects and training with Syrian military and defense chiefs. A CIA report released in...

Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Polind Acevit affirmed his country’s rejection of any threat against Iraq. He considered dialogue the best way for solving differences. This came when the Turkish Prime Minister on Friday, August 23, received Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh. The Turkish Prime Minister affirmed that Turkey respects Iraq’s sovereignty, independence and unity. Jordan, King Abdullah II of Jordan renewed the kingdom's support for Iraq against mounting US threat to launch military aggression. In a televised speech recently, King Abdullah said Jordan's position towards Iraq is clear as it has reiterated the need to put an end to...

There is a lot of talk going around about arabs and moslems attacking Israel with NBC (Nuclear/Biological/Chemical) warfare, unconventional weapons, or "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (WMD´s). Against the backdrop of the government of Israel telling everyone that there is no risk out of one side of it´s mouth, while telling of unpreparedness for terrible dangers out of the other, there is little differentiation made between the types of attacks to which Israel will be subjected. People are thinking about their gas masks and sealed rooms, making sure everything is in order. While this is as it should be, there is...

IN SPITE OF VAST WEALTH, ARAB STATES LAG BEHIND WORLD WASHINGTON -- A year ago this spring, I was traveling in the Persian Gulf kingdoms when a prescient American diplomat took me aside and outlined for me the disintegration advancing across the Arab world. The entire Middle East, from Morocco to the Gulf (including Israel), was receiving only 4 percent of all international investment funds, he began. An unsustainable 75 percent of the population in Arab countries was under 25 years of age, with 50 percent of Palestinians under 15. These restless young are often highly and inappropriately educated, but...

The latest suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem are just another consequence of the Israeli occupation of Arab lands. This was the standard line of all Arab countries -- including the so-called moderate states. Suicide bombers now enjoy such a degree of legitimacy in the Arab world that each attack is accepted as a military operation rather than a barbaric act of a deranged individual supported by a sinister web of extremists. This shocking fact is representative of not only Israel's problems with its neighbours, but also of the West's increasingly difficult relationship with the Arab world, both of which are...

European security reports have warned against terrorist operations to be taken place in several Arab states during the coming phase. The reports which were published on Friday by the Saudi daily al- Watan quoting a Dutch source saying that the terrorist attacks will be on two parallel lines. The first is operations against American and Israeli targets in the Arab states and these will be by active Palestinian movements, especially Hamas and the second is terrorist operations targeting tourism and economic targets that undermine the internal security and economic income of these countries. These operations will be by Mossad's agents...