It's all America's fault
Reading the Arab press this week, Dina Ezzat finds more disturbing images of the Middle East, all because of the United States
It seems that US policy in the Middle East is not getting any better. All calls that have been echoed in the Arab, and for that matter, American press during the past few months about the need for a reconceptualised American foreign policy in the region -- particularly in relation to the situation in both Iraq and the occupied Palestinian territories -- have yet to produce the desired results or impact on Washington's involvement in this part of the world. Havoc seems to be in continuous play in the Middle East -- and the United States the chief provider.
News of the continued confrontation between American troops and the Iraqi resistance continued to vie for space in newspapers along with news of the relentless confrontation and violence in the occupied Palestinian territories. Along with these, the Arab press was busy this week covering the brewing confrontation between the US on the one hand and both Syria and Iran on the other over allegations propagated by the US administration that Damascus and Tehran were harbouring and supporting terrorists and entertaining plans to develop weapons of mass destruction.
US foreign policy in the Middle East was indeed subject to considerable debate in the Arab press this week. In "When empires talk", that appeared in the London-based Al-Hayat on Tuesday, Egyptian commentator Mahmoud Mouawad attempted to analyse US foreign policy in the region in past and future years. For Mouawad, the US administration seems to be basing its policy on inspiring, inciting or when need be, masterminding, coups to topple regimes that do not meet its demands. The recent foreign policy speech by US President George W Bush, Mouawad argued, is an American plan of action in the Middle East that seems to be drawn up to the beat of war drums. Mouawad wrote that the US call to spread democracy in the Middle East, given renewed prominence by the Bush speech on 6 November, "is also a part of a misguided US policy that seems to lack the obviously required cultural sensitivity".
Throughout the week, Al-Hayat carried several other articles by commentators from across the region in relation to US Middle East policy. On the same Tuesday issue, alongside Mouawad's article, Al-Hayat's opinion page carried an article by prominent Iranian commentator Mohamed Sadik Al-Husseini that criticised "the massive and obvious confusion of US foreign policy in Iran" throughout the past 25 years, ever since Islamic rule was established by the Iranian revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini. Al-Husseini was particularly critical of recent statements by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in which he accused the Iranian government of turning religion into a political tool to serve its purposes. "From these statements by Secretary Powell, it seems that Washington has thrown its last stone on Tehran now that Iran has denied the US every pretext, including that related to Iran's nuclear programme," when it agreed to a flexible inspection agreement with the IAEA.
Like Mouawad, Al-Husseini slammed the US lack of cultural sensitivity, not to mention awareness, when it comes to this part of the world. And according to Tunisian politician Ahmed Naguib Al-Shami, who joined the debate on the opinion pages of Al-Hayat on Saturday, even when the US offers valid arguments, it makes it very difficult for Arab countries to interact with such ideas. In his article, Al-Shami argued that even political opposition groups in the Arab world would find it extremely difficult to go along with even sensible US propositions on political reform in the Arab world due to its overall messy foreign policy in the Middle East where Washington is seen as an occupation force in Iraq and a supporter of the "intransigent and tyrannical" Israeli occupation of Arab territories. The US, Al-Shami argued, cannot just talk about the need to spread the principles of human rights and political reform in the Middle East while it practices clear violations of human rights in Iraq and tolerates worse violations by Israel against the Palestinians. The US policy of double standards will not pay, he said.
"The US is looking for an escape route" was the headline of an editorial on Monday by another London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. According to Al-Quds Al-Arabi the US does not seem to know what to do with Iraq. "On the one hand US President Bush says he is not going to run away from Iraq but then the US administration is leaking information to suggest that it is aiming to end its occupation of Iraq and hand over power to the Iraqis by the summer." In the same issue Al-Quds Al-Arabi ran an opinion piece by Moutae' Al-Safedi attributing the recent wave of political and diplomatic attacks launched by Washington against Syria to an American attempt to cover up its failure to properly handle the situation in Iraq and the occupied Palestinian territories. "By introducing its miserable Syria Accountability Act, this US administration is seeking to violate Syrian national sovereignty and pride and thus make more chaotic a region that is already in serious confusion due to US foreign policy."
Concerning the Arab press, criticism of US foreign policy in the Middle East was not confined to just opinion pieces. News stories carried from various parts of the region depicted the failure of Washington to bring stability where stability is most needed. On its front page on Monday, the daily Al-Bayan of the United Arab Emirates carried news of the resignation of Marco Calamai, the Italian representative in Iraq. Like several other Arab papers Al-Bayan quoted Calamai as describing as disappointing the performance of the US-led coalition forces in Iraq after having failed to improve the security situation or to allay the concerns and worries of the Iraqi people. "The only way out is for a UN supervised plan," Calamai was widely quoted in the Arab press as saying.
Commentators were quick to express their anger about the failure of the US to exercise the required pressure on the Israeli government to force an end to the state of violence and tension against the Palestinian people under occupation. The debate was joined by former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami. An article by Ben Ami, which appeared in the Saudi-financed, London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday was not directly critical of the recent US role in the Middle East. But he did allude to the "ambiguity" of the roadmap and the unrealistic idea of "those who still think that the Israeli prime minister can quell the Palestinian Intifada". And to the surprise of many, Ben Ami did not support the idea that Washington can find a way out of the current dilemma in the Middle East. "The answer to the current situation is in the hands of the Security Council. What we need today is a new UN Security Council resolution" to propose a way to end the current state of violence in the Middle East.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 20 - 26 November 2003 (Issue No. 665)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/665/pr2.htm