Dampened spirits
With the weather hot and humid, there was nothing in this week's Arab press to boost morale, writes Amina Elbendary
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Al-Hayat's cartoonist somberly draws the coffin of the Arab pen; Mustafa Hussein in Al-Akhbar shows two young men by the tourism and shopping festival, "it's not for us, ours is the unemployment and begging festival"; Amr Okasha in Al-Wafd depicts a Thanaweiya 'Amma graduate with the score of 99 per cent asking his mother "wouldn't this score get me into parliament?"
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After the subdued welcome given the new Iraqi Ruling Council in the Arab press, the London-based Lebanese newspaper Al-Hayat published an interview with Adnan Pachachi, a member of the council, on 22 July on the occasion of the conference held on the reconstruction of Iraq in Rome. Pachachi emphasised what he described as the council's greatest concerns: providing law and order for Iraqi citizens, and bringing Iraq back to full membership of international organisations and the international community with its sovereignty restored.
On the whole the Ruling Council has been viewed with suspicion by most Arab commentators, though there have been exceptions. Writing in the London-based Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat on 21 July, Uthman Al-Rawwaf suggested that the council should support the full range of groups that have now emerged in Iraq, not choosing to support one above another. He called on Arabs to support the council, and drew attention to its positive side as representative of the Iraqi people and as a potential expression of Iraqi nationalism.
Similarly, Mohieddin Amimor writing in Asharq Al-Awsat on 18 July focussed on the positive development that the formation of the council represented for law and order in Iraq, following its breakdown in one of the world's most civilised nations. However, it was obvious how contrived the make-up of the council was, he wrote, since it reflected the quagmire the US occupation had now found itself in, as well as American ignorance of how to deal with events and manage conflict.
Amimor also referred to the ongoing game of blame being played between the Iraqis and other Arabs, as the one blamed the other for the crimes of the previous Saddam regime in Iraq. The former, speaking from the lap of the US-led occupying forces, now resent any perceived "interference" by the Arabs in Iraqi affairs, while simultaneously denouncing them for having "abandoned" Iraq to the previous Ba'athist regime.
While Amimor conceded that many Arab intellectuals had not behaved well during that period, they had nevertheless not vocally supported the Saddam regime, he said. He added that three factors would reveal the true intentions of the council: first, whether priority would be given to forming an independent commission to set up a new constitution and one that would include all political actors on the Iraqi scene; second, the setting of dates for elections in Iraq under UN and Arab League supervision, and third, the setting of a time-table for the evacuation of American forces from Iraq.
Abdel-Bari Utwan, writing in the London-based Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi on 21 July, pointed out that in place of any form of popular support the council has so far only borne the brunt of demonstrations denouncing it, citing the rallies against the council held in the Iraqi city of Al-Najaf by supporters of Muqtada Al-Sadr. Utwan, though an increasingly lone voice, remained unapologetically supportive of the Iraqi "resistance".
The troubles the US is facing in Iraq, and the possibility of the collapse of Tony Blair's government in Britain, could work to further resistance to the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq, bringing it to an end sooner, Hazem Saghiya wrote in Al-Hayat on 22 July. These developments could also help the Ruling Council gain prerogatives, and they could hurry the evacuation of Coalition troops and open up chances for the UN and Europe to play a role in the reconstruction of Iraq.
Writing in Asharq Al-Awsat on 21 July, Fahmi Howeidy reiterated the view that accusations directed at the Iraqi resistance in fact benefited the US-led occupation, paving the way for its continuation. Why were so many Arabs keen to dismiss the idea that the Iraqis were now engaged in a struggle to defend their dignity and independence, he asked. Howeidy did not exclude the possibility that "remnants" of the ancien régime were involved in the resistance operations, or that Iran could be sending them support. However, while Iran would not necessarily want the US successfully to occupy Iraq, it was unlikely to support a possible Shi'ite state in Iraq that could be a rival for Shi'ite leadership.
Such regional considerations should not exclude the possibility that the Iraqi resistance was genuine, Howeidy said.
The issue of reforming the Arab League, which has resurfaced since the crisis that led to the US-led war on Iraq, found new expression in the Arab press this week. Writing in Al-Hayat on 22 July, Egyptian politician and MP Mustafa El- Feki summarised "10 commandments" for the reform of the league.
Following a meeting with the league's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, and a select group of Arab officials, El-Feki noted that while the league could not be reformed in a vacuum, that its now 65-year-old charter needed revision, not simple amendment, and that the organisation needed some form of what he called "national quality control", it nevertheless played an important symbolic role and kept up at least a semblance of Arab order. New strategies should also be developed in relation to other strategic regional players, such as Turkey and Iran, he said.
The issue of reforming the league was also addressed by Wisam Sa'ada in As-Safir on 21 July, the writer referring sarcastically to repeated calls for "reconciliation" on the part of Arab nationalists, leftists and Islamists particularly since the fall of Baghdad and usually to the exclusion of pro-Western Arab liberals. Sa'ada was uncompromising in his denunciations of such political currents, which in his view signified a vacuum in the Arab political system. All of them had been defeated by events, he said, but none had had the courage to admit it.
The release from prison of Algerian Islamist leaders Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhaj earlier this month began to inspire columnists and commentators. Writing in Al-Hayat on 22 July, Mohamed Qawwas argued that the two leaders of the FIS, the Front islamique du salut, had been responsible for the breakdown of political Islam in Algeria by working to undermine calls for democracy and being solely interested in gaining power.
The two men had encouraged violence and strife in Algeria, he said, and now they "had come out of prison to a changed world: Osama Bin Laden has waged his war on the US in the battle of 11 September 2001, political Islam has fallen as a credible alternative in the West -- let us recall that Washington denounced the obstruction of the electoral process in Algeria in the 1990s -- and the US and its allies have waged war on [Islamist] terrorism without mercy. The two leaders have emerged from prison having lost wide popular domestic support, as well as potential foreign support. Both the local and international arena are welcoming the insistence by Algeria, its president, government, generals and representatives, to cut ties completely with the tragedy of the FIS."
In the Saudi paper Al-Watan on 16 July Lina Balaghi Fahs interviewed Iranian President Mohamed Khatami on issues ranging from the domestic scene in Iran to the roadmap for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Khatami gave assurances that Iran's defense policy contained no programme to acquire nuclear weapons; in fact, he said, Iran has urged the region and the world to destroy all nuclear arsenals. Regional countries that had such weapons included Israel, India and Pakistan, he said, but Iran was attracting the ire of the United States even though it had no such weapons.
The Americans "know that we do not own nuclear weapons, and we are not working towards acquiring any," Khatami said. What Iran wanted, he added, was nuclear technology to be used for peaceful purposes and for development, and therefore the country had opted to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency to reassure the world on this issue.
Khatami also rejected Western claims that Iran was interfering in Iraq. The connection between Iran and the 60 per cent of the Iraqi population who are Shi'ite was not "interference", Khatami said, denying allegations that "Iranian elements" were taking part in the resistance to the US-led occupation of Iraq.
It was essential that the Coalition evacuate its forces from Iraq as soon as possible, paving the way for the development of genuine democracy in the country, Khatami said.
