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Other News

European Commission official visits Palestinian territories

Mr. Christian LEFFLER, Director for the Middle East and South Mediterranean at the External Relations Directorate of the European Commission is visiting the Occupied Palestinian Territories from 8-10 October. The objective of his visit is to discuss the economic, political, and humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, recent developments and prospects, the Palestinian reform process, and the current status and future of the EU’s assistance to the Palestinians. As a response to the increasing economic and humanitarian crisis faced by the Palestinian people because of closures and curfews, the European Commission has provided over 400 million Euro in assistance to the Palestinians since the start of the Intifada, which represents more than double the amount of aid provided in the two years before the Intifada. In addition, the European Commission has increased its assistance to the refugees through UNRWA by over 1/3 to now 70 million Euros per year. Humanitarian assistance through ECHO, the EU Humanitarian Office, has risen to four times the amount before the intifada, from 6.5 million Euro in 1999 to 25 million Euro this year.

Mr. Leffler will be meeting with President Arafat, Dr Saeb Erekat, Minister for Local Government, Dr Ghassan Al Khatib, Minister of Labor, Mr. Maher El Masri, Minister of Economy and Trade, Mr. Yasser Abed Rabbo, Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Ibrahim Dughmeh, Minister of Justice and with Mr. Ahmed Qurieh, Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

In addition, Mr. Leffler will have meetings with PLC members; Mr. Nabil Amer, Dr Hanan Ashrawi, Dr Saaid Zaidani, Director General of Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights), Dr Mustafa Barghouti, Head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and with Mr. Maen Erekat from the negotiations department.

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The separating wall to include 26,000 persons

Land Research Center, which belongs to the Arab Studies Society, announced that the separating wall would include 26,000 Palestinians. The Center had issued a report in which it monitored the Israeli violations in Palestine, related to the separating wall and the Israeli settlements and the checkpoints and the bypass roads. The report focused on those violations and stressed that the wall will take away vast areas of lands in the West Bank, especially in Sha'rawiyya region in Tulkarem. (Al-Quds)

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Editorial

Al-Quds: National Unity is a top priority

The regretful incidents that took place in Gaza in the past two days is a dangerous indicator that national unity has never been translated on the ground and that tribalism and sectoral loyalties are more important than loyalty to the homeland and to the rule of the law which is the basic pillars of any civil modern society.

The events in Gaza show that our society is still weak in terms of a civil society and in terms of the rule of the law.

Will everybody rise to the level of responsibility and overcome the feelings of tribalism and personal and family loyalties?

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News Flash (Radio, Voice of Palestine 7:30 - 8:30 am)

Gaza: the number of martyrs in Khan Younis massacre increased to 16. Yesterday, Mahmoud al-Astal, 16, and Muhammad al-Astal, 40, died of sustained injuries.
Israeli occupation forces continued to raze Palestinian cultivated land in Deir al-Balah and Beit Hanoun.
Last night, delegations of Hamas and Fatah movement met in Gaza to contain the regretful incidents.

Qalqilya: early this morning Israeli occupation forces raided Salfit village and blasted three homes belonging to Bilal Abbas Abdel Fatah, Maher Hussein al-Bisher and Abdel Latif al-Bisher. Two other houses were damaged in the blasts.
This morning, Israeli troops stormed the city and imposed a curfew on it.

Jenin: identity of the Palestinian martyr, which was killed by Israeli occupation forces last night, is still unknown.

Nablus: for the first time since 110 days, Israeli occupation forces lifted their curfew on Nablus and its refugee camps at the same time. The curfew will be re-imposed at 6:00 p.m.

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Interviews (Radio, Voice of Palestine 7:30 - 8:30 am)

Al-Aqsa Mosque wall

Adnan al-Husseini – Director of Islamic Waqf

Q: Is it true that there is a compromise between Islamic Waqf and Israeli government?
A: in fact there are no compromises. Al-Aqsa Mosque does not tolerate any compromises. It is an Islamic mosque and the Islamic Waqf, on behalf of all Moslems of the world, is responsible for repairs and maintenance there.
For the southern wall, Islamic Waqf began to repair the wall at the beginning of this year, yet Israeli police stopped the maintenance on claims that there are dangers and that the wall may collapse. These issues are only for frightening the people.
We have finished part of the work. But it seems there is a change in Israeli policy in regards to al-Aqsa Mosque. There are attempts to interfere into affairs of Islamic Waqf. There is a big blockade on the Islamic Waqf. They prohibit construction materials. On our part, we are trying to solve the issue in a logical way. The other part does not know logic.
For the wall, our works there stopped because of Israeli interferences. We tried to find a third party to continue the work because it is our mosque and we should protect it.
We prepared for bringing a specialized technical team to conduct tests and to prepare a report on work of Islamic Waqf. In order to get out of this problem, a group of the Jordanian Royal Scientific Society came to conduct tests on the wall.

Q: Is it true that the group will send samples from the wall to Israeli archeology authority?
A: the group will take some samples in order to test if the wall is strong. The samples will be given to scientific groups. The samples will not be given to other parties. We are waiting for the report of the royal society.

Q: How much time does it take to prepare the report?
A: taking the samples will finish by this Friday and we hope it will be prepared as soon as possible.

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Health conditions

Riyad al-Za’noun – PNA Minister of Health

Q: Do you think the number of martyrs of Khan Younis massacre may increase?
A: in fact, since the first day we announced that among the injured there are 12 in serious conditions including four who were injured in the head. We were able to rescue a good number of them.

Q: Are there injured who may become handicapped?
A: regretfully, there are two cases that are in a coma. They may either become clinically dead or they may become paralyzed.

Q: Do you think Palestinian hospitals are capable to cope with the current situation?
A: no doubts there have been qualitative and quantitative development in our health sector. In the past 25 months, new hospitals were opened and are well equipped.
Moreover, more equipment is installed in big hospitals. For example, in al-Shifa Hospital, operation rooms increased from 8 to 12. In Rafah, there are now two operation rooms while before there were none. In Salfeet, there is a hospital while in the past there was none.

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Interviews (Al Jazeera Satellite Channel - Qatar)

Gaza incidents

Ismail Hanieh – Member of Hamas Political Leadership

The situation is very complicated. There are many details in the issue because its background is family feuds. Hamas has no connection to this issue. We are going to present our position during our coming meeting with Fatah members.

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Ahmad Haless – Secretary of Fatah in Gaza

If it is true what Hamas says, it should issue a clear position in this regard. It should end its responsibilities towards those killers so that law will maintained.

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Arab Press

Headlines

Egypt: Al-Ahram daily, October 9

* Mubarak discusses with the British FM the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, and Iraq…Maher: we have agreed on giving peace a change and continue contacts regarding the Iraqi issue.
* The Congress is heading towards issuing a decision to mandate the American president launch war against Iraq.
* Maher asserts the world condemnation of the Israeli massacre against the Palestinians.

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Jordan: Al-Rai daily, Oct. 9

* The King underlines the responsibility of the international community to end the occupation and avoiding the region a new conflict.
* Mu’asher: the military action against Iraq is not inevitable.
* Abul Ragheb discusses with Cheney bilateral cooperation with Washington,
* The Royal Scientific Committee examines the southern wall of Al-Aqsa in preparation for renovation.
* Sharon brags on the massacre in Khan Yunis and threats of continuing the attacks against Gaza.
* Arafat meets with Solana and Mauratinus.
* Bush threatens Baghdad with endangering the American security.

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The United Arab Emirates: Al-Khaleej daily, Oct. 9

* The Emirates reviews facilitations given to subjects from 33 foreign countries.
* Sharon threats with a new massacre and invading Gaza Strip is a matter of time.
* Bush considers the war as not imminent.
* An American soldier killed and another injured in Failaka by two armed Kuwaitis who were killed in the attack.
* A demonstration in Jakarta before the American embassy.
* Al-Bashir: Eritrea is executing Zionist plans.

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Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily; London- Oct. 9

* American sources: an air base in Oman, and Egyptian facilitations as a support station.
* Two Kuwaitis attack American forces, they are likely to have relations with Al-Qaedah
* The Sudanese army restores Toreet.
* The captain of the French carrier accuses the Yemenite authorities of delaying the ship admission.

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Opinion

Jordan: Al-Rai daily, Oct. 9 -  Jordan’s role in the coming war; by: Dr. Fahd Al-Fanik

Commenting on a tour in the US organized by the Center for Strategic Studies at the Jordan University, and meeting with US officials, writers, thinkers and journalists, the writer says:” the first impression we had is that the US understands Jordan’s circumstances and the sensitivity of the popular and official situation. There is a consensus on accepting the idea of not involving Jordan in the war by using its military bases and skies in the intended American campaign against Iraq. Jordan which is getting some $ 500 millions from the US in 2003 will however be requested to provide some non-war services which Jordan will not be embarrassed to meet. Simplest of these services is providing rescue operations and medical treatment. The American officials considered with admiration and satisfaction the military hospital which was established by the Royal Medical Services in the north of Afghanistan in Mazar Al-Sharif. On the other hand, there may come circumstances which will necessitate having international police force for maintaining security and order, and in this case Jordan will be in the forefront of these countries which will be requested to contribute to this force.

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Jordan: Jordan Times - Two years of Intifada — a lose-lose situation; by: Hassan Barari

Last week marked the end of the second year of the Palestinian Intifada, an ongoing conflict with unnecessary bloodshed that has brought neither side of the conflict any satisfaction. After both parties failed remarkably to impress their perspectives, it has never been as urgent as now that they reassess rationally and critically the utility of their respective strategies. The expediency of their strategies should be gauged against the objectives for which they were set. It should be emphasized at the outset that both Israelis and Palestinians have employed force to coerce each other.

Concerning Israel, it is evident that ever since Ariel Sharon assumed power, this particular Israeli government has suffered from lack of a political vision that addresses fairly the multidimensional aspects of the conflict. Hence, its systematic provocation and onslaught against the Palestinians, albeit projected in the context of war against “terror”, should be seen against the backdrop of the inherent cleavages within the current government with respect to dealing with the Palestinians. The perpetuation of the current war on the Palestinians, and here is the crux of the matter, appears to be the only common denominator among the Cabinet members.

To cover this endemic behavior, the government, hijacked by the hardliners, has been driven by an erroneous working assumption based on a strategy of employing force alone. This approach is not, as the Israelis argue, acting as a deterrent, but is meant to bring about unconditional Palestinian capitulation. Explicit in Israeli leaders' myriad statements is that Palestinians understand nothing but the language of force and therefore they, once decisively defeated, would turn against the current leadership. Palestinians, according to this reasoning, would then come to terms with an Israeli offer which is, at best, not expected to match even the already rejected one offered by Ehud Barak at Camp David.

Despite trying to appear otherwise, the fact remains that Israel has been suffering almost as much as the Palestinians. Israel's loss is unprecedented, with the death toll exceeding 600 and an economic recession not experienced for the last two decades. Unchecked by the chorus of international criticism of his harsh policies, Sharon and his hardliners are not moved by the critical situation in which Israel has found itself. What makes thing worse is the fact that there is no genuine debate within Israel over the utility of carrying out armed confrontation. All opinion polls reveal a disgruntled Jewish majority backing Sharon's ill-advised iron-fist approach. Unsurprisingly, this fits neatly with Sharon's never ended mission of fighting the Palestinians' tooth and nail. However, it is evident that Israel has never been more distant from this objective than now. The Palestinians are not intimidated by superior Israeli military power and would never give up their rights to independence. Even if Sharon manages to defeat the Palestinians and consolidate the current occupation, Israel will end up a South African state being criticized by everyone, and its international standing will suffer accordingly. Sharon's inability to see through things has stopped him from attempting to use other nonviolent methods. To put it more bluntly, Israeli strategy has failed.

As to the Palestinians, let us make a case that the Palestinians are supposed to fight to end the last colonial occupation on earth. Therefore, the objective is both noble and legitimate. While it is true that they are entitled, under international law, to resist the Israeli occupation until independence is realized, unfortunately this Intifada is not taking them along that road. Those who argue that violence, as a strategy, will pay off seem incapable to understand how the asymmetrical balance of power will prevail at the end of the game. It should be stressed, however, that maintaining the conflict would only help Sharon and his right-wing partners to perpetuate occupation and consolidate the illegal settlements beyond the Green Line. Thus, if the aim of violence is liberation, after two years of the Intifada, proponents of the theory of employing force have failed to convince us how this has improved the Palestinians' situation. Those who also invoke Lebanon as a model fail again to appreciate that Lebanon is an entirely different scenario, exactly as Yamit, a dismantled settlement in Sinai, to Begin was not Ma'aleh Adumim.

It should be pointed out that the last thing on earth that this Israeli government seeks to realize is peace with the Palestinians based on implementing Resolution 242. But Sharon's success in maintaining his war against the Palestinians, within the context of the war against “terrorism”, entails a radical reassessment of the Palestinians' strategy. Evidently, Sharon enjoys the support and appreciation of the current American administration. Bush's stand is clear that the Jews are the victims of Palestinian terror and that Palestinian suffering is due to their leaders letting them down, a characteristically simplistic unbalanced remark.

Having said that, however, the Palestinians need to keep resisting occupation but they also need to change the tools according to how events unfold. Using just one tool, with the illusion that it serves their objective, is the last thing the Palestinians need. It should be made clear that these tools should be part of a grand strategy aimed at achieving one objective: Palestinian independence.

To conclude, it is too obvious to be missed that this mode of thinking has unquestionably outlived its usefulness. Neither party has met its objectives. The Palestinians, in particular, whose weakness is derived from lack of a unified strategy, badly need to engage in an internal dialogue aimed at developing such a strategy, that defines clearly the political objective of the resistance. More importantly, the strategy should remain impervious to new developments.

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Lebanon: Daily Star Online - Bush’s democracy: What’s in a word?

The Bush administration has gone to great lengths to couch its foreign policy in the language of “spreading democracy.” To fully understand what Washington is really up to, though, one must take into account the views of the people who have this president’s ear. Once that has been done, much of what might otherwise seem aimless and amateurish takes on a more sinister flavor.

It is no secret that George W. Bush’s presidency has thus far built its foreign policy around a strategy of sidelining the professional diplomats at the State Department in favor of a hawkish cabal that runs the Defense Department. The dangers of such an approach should be manifest to anyone who understands international relations and/or the basics of picking the right person for the right job. Donald Rumsfeld is one of the most qualified defense secretaries of the past half-century, more than qualified to provide expert civilian leadership for the Pentagon and help shape its procurement and training strategies for the future. But in the Bush formula, his voice is given free rein, escaping the bonds established by law and tradition to shape US foreign policy.

The last American secretary of state to be so badly undermined by his president was William Rogers, hired by Richard Nixon to make public pronouncements that were often obsolete even before he uttered them because then-National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger was calling the shots behind the scenes.

Nixon’s presidency was diseased in more ways than one, but this manifestation was especially onerous, producing and/or exacerbating debacles in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South America.
The evidence this time around suggests that a far more systematic strategy is being pursued, one that threatens to destabilize literally dozens of global hotspots by attempting to bend various governments to Washington’s will.

In September 2000, the Project for a New American Century, a conservative think tank, released a report entitled Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century. As outlined in an op-ed piece last month by Jay Bookman, deputy editorial page editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the document carried a series of recommendations envisioning US hegemony over vast swaths of the globe. It was broadly based on a 1992 Defense Department study whose “findings” were repudiated by George Bush the elder. Then the son came to power, and with him several figures who were instrumental in the 2000 document and/or its 1992 inspiration: Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, Stephen Cambone, Donald Kagan, Eliot Cohen, Devon Cross, and Dov Zakheim.

Many of the building blocks for their strategy, at least as it applies to Central Asia, have already been put in place by the war in Afghanistan. US bases, for example, now lie athwart key lines of communications and along the path that a pipeline from the Caspian Basin might follow.

More to the point, the Bush administration’s recently promulgated National Security Strategy is nothing but a watered-down version of the Project for a New American Century report. Its language is designed to be more palatable, but its goals are every bit as offensive  and dangerous.

No one doubted that the crimes of Sept. 11, 2001, would result in a more muscular American foreign policy. Few countries on Earth would take such a blow lying down, let alone a superpower.

The more the world sees of Bush’s plans, though, the less they seem to have anything to do with the hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field. In fact, Sept. 11 has taken on the appearance of a convenient pretext for what the White House had wanted to do all along.

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Editorial

Egypt: Al-Ahram daily, October 9 - New Israeli massacre

A horrible massacre perpetrated by the Israeli forces against the Palestinian people in their 1967 occupied territories, so what did the superpowers do particularly the US to punish Israel and prevent it from repeating these criminal massacres which exceed what fascism did in WW2. Nothing they did, with the exception of some soft clauses. The horrible Israeli crime passes unpunished. This happens at a time when the US is doing a big fuss on what it calls fighting Palestinian terrorism when the intifada heroes launch martyrdom operations in response to the Israeli occupation acts.

The law endorsed recently by the American president which violates the international legitimacy resolutions which demand Israel to withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967 including East Jerusalem only supports the Israeli colonialist tendency and is a motive for Israel to perpetrate more criminal and terrorist acts against the Palestinian people.

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The United Arab Emirates: Al-Khaleej daily, Oct. 9 - Bush modifies his accent

Can we say that Bush’s statement in his speech the day before yesterday that war against Iraq is not imminent as a relative retreat from his stringent position against Baghdad as a result of the international opposition? Most probably international stands against war, especially on the part of permanent Security Council members have affected the accent of the American president who failed over the last months to provoke against Iraq and to form an international alliance against it.

In this context it is not an easy thing to see 24 American cities go on demonstrating massively against war, and some participants condemning Bush’s policies against Iraq. Recent polls have also showed that the majority of Americans do not see sufficient justifications for the war.

All this may not prevent Bush from executing his war threats, but the political conflict ongoing now in the US gives hope for the possibility of a certain change in the American foreign policies.

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Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily; London- Oct. 9 - Palestinians and the responsibility of national unity

Just as much as the recent Israeli massacre in Gaza was condemned internationally, the Arabs felt so bitter about the clashes between Hamas and the Palestinian police force. No doubt that this fight only serves Sharon’s interests internally and internationally. Denying Sharon such benefits is indeed the big responsibility of all the Palestinian parties. The Palestinian factions shoulder in this critical situation, a big responsibility that dictates careful consideration of the people’s future and not just their future as factions and organizations. Sharon wants to break the Palestinians and plans for transfer. He wants to invent a Palestinian alternative leadership that accepts his plans, this is the real danger that Palestinians face now, and which the Palestinian authority is confronting, the Palestinian factions should also carefully consider their function approach and the expected impact of their resistance operations before carrying them out. Military actions even the smallest of them, are political actions and should be studied politically, and then all windows will be open for a close national unity. 

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Lebanon: Arab Press - When slaughtering becomes a ‘routine matter’

The bloody Israeli tank and helicopter gunship assault on Khan Younis in which 14 Palestinians were killed and scores wounded dominates newspaper headlines throughout the Arab world.

But while unsurprised that Israeli forces deliberately targeted so many civilians during the raid given the record of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, many commentators voice dismay at the international community’s noticeable indifference to the atrocity.

The UAE daily Al-Khaleej comments that it has become virtually a “routine matter” for Israel to slaughter Palestinians with impunity and the outside world to indulge it, “with some countries condemning, others criticizing, and the rest, especially the United States of America, justifying its actions” and faulting the Palestinians for continuing to resist the occupation.

“This does not just stem from the world’s inability to put pressure on an Israel that is backed to the hilt by the world’s sole superpower. The saga has started to resemble a kind of tacit international conspiracy of silence, aimed at persuading the Palestinians to conclude the conflict at the expense of their rights,” it says.

“In short, the world is unable to strong-arm the aggressor, and does not want to bear the burden of doing that. So it seeks instead to urge the victim to be resigned to its fate and accept anything. And, of all the political and moral tools for achieving that, the most effective is silence and feigning impotence in the face of injustice,” Al-Khaleej adds.

“The world’s silence, and the Arabs’ of course, on what happened yesterday in Khan Younis, is the ultimate disgrace  especially as the crime was as plain as day and of a brutality that is rarely matched, and the criminal is known and his record is replete with similar crimes.”

No army in the world other than Israel’s can get away “with mounting an assault, and then waiting for civilians to gather to begin the rescue and first aid work before firing missiles at them from helicopter gunships,” Al-Khaleej declares. “Yet the crime will go unpunished as before, and the torrent of statements will flow forth as usual.”

The Saudi daily Al-Riyadh says the West’s failure to react to Israel’s latest atrocity testifies to the Jewish state’s success in making it a “cultural” taboo for anyone in Europe or America to criticize it. The raid on Khan Younis deliberately targeted many Palestinian civilians, as well as a hospital, it writes. “If any Palestinian organization were to attack patients or schools, the world would erupt and such action would be deemed criminal. But when Israel targets children, it is absolved on grounds that it is its victims who exposed themselves to death. The upshot is that no one is moved by the repeated scenes of Palestinian fatalities, for they are just part of the human surplus of millions of Arabs.”

Arab lives have become so expendable because the Arabs have grown accustomed to “being slapped by and submissive to” America and Israel, whether in Palestine, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan or elsewhere, Al-Riyadh writes. But the Arab public will not acquiesce to this state of affairs forever. “The pan-Arab nation is ailing, but it is liable to recover.” Israel knows that, and will be at a loss if things spiral out of official control. “We do not want to predict destruction rather than the building of peace and coexistence, but what is happening on the Arab ground portends the unknown,” the Saudi daily warns.

The pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi cautions that Israel is trying to foment civil war in the Gaza Strip, and suspects it is manipulating unnamed Palestinian security chiefs to that end.

The paper points to tit-for-tat killings after Israel’s raid on Khan Younis, when a group of men affiliated to Hamas assassinated a Palestinian Authority (PA) security officer, prompting members of the security forces to “exact revenge” by killing two Hamas loyalists in a gunfight. Faulting both sides for failing to restrain their men and allowing what was apparently a clan vendetta to take on political overtones, Al-Quds al-Arabi expresses shock that internecine fighting could break out in the wake of a fresh Israeli “massacre” in the Gaza Strip that claimed both Hamas and Fatah followers among its victims.
“Sharon has tried hard before to trigger a Palestinian civil war by pitting the PA against Hamas, but the self-discipline of both sides prevented him from achieving his bloody goal.” Yet the latest clashes, and the exchanges of accusations that accompanied them, played right into his hands.

Al-Quds al-Arabi says that prior to the intifada, the Palestinian public took a dim view of the PA security forces, seeing them as “tools” of Israel’s security services whose job was to crush all resistance and protect the Israeli occupation and settlers. The behavior of many members of the security forces during the uprising salvaged their reputation, “but it seems that some security chiefs look back nostalgically on those halcyon days, and hope to restore them in harmony with Israeli and American prescriptions,” it says.

Internecine fighting would be a disaster, not just because of the casualties both sides would inflict on each other, but because Israel would exploit it to step up its assassinations of leaders on both sides, the paper warns. “It is to be hoped that the security forces come back to their senses and stop listening to the orders of those who seek to turn them into an Israeli instrument for implementing the ‘Gaza First’ plan aimed at destroying the intifada and all its achievements,” Al-Quds al-Arabi says.

In Damascus, the Syrian government-run daily Tishreen writes that the reason Sharon can order his forces to perpetrate atrocities such as in Khan Younis, and why he is sure to continue doing so, is that he knows the US administration of President George W. Bush will protect him from any international censure or punishment.

“It (the Bush administration) only sees through Israeli eyes and only hears with Israeli ears,” and if it ever has anything at all to say about Israeli atrocities, it expresses “regret” while justifying them as acts of “self-defense” against “terrorism,” the paper says. “The question that poses itself is this: How can an administration which embraces a killer of defenseless civilians retain any credibility? Who will believe it for one moment when it says it wants to work for the good of Iraq by waging war against it, killing its people and flattening its cities? How can any rational person on earth believe its claims when they are disproved by its behavior in practice?”

With people taking to the streets in America and Europe to protest against the Bush administration’s double standards and its plans to attack Iraq, “do American leaders believe that anyone in the Arab or Muslim worlds will welcome the arrival of their forces when their sole objective is to seize the oil wells and support Sharon’s criminal designs?”

In Iraq proper, a columnist in the leading Baghdad daily Babil protests that some neighboring states that have been publicly opposing a US blitz have concurrently been signalling the opposite to the Americans.
Abderrazzak al-Duleimi alludes to the duplicity of these players, who he says have been outwardly “striking postures ostensibly based on a principled position, which gives the people of the region priority over those who threaten them.” Iraq has tried, and continues to try, to adopt a “balanced policy” toward its neighbors, seeking good relations and enhanced trade with them in the knowledge that this is to their mutual advantage and in the interest of regional stability, he writes. And its officials and diplomats have been seeking to establish “clear common ground” with them.

“But what happened is that some officials from our neighbors have made statements or behaved in a manner that could be construed as signalling the opposite of what we heard from other more senior officials” in the same countries. “Such behavior raises questions: What is the true position? And how can these stances be explained?” Duleimi asks. “One thing that the Arab and Muslim states of the region should not overlook is that America’s threats and its aggressive intentions do not target us alone. The focus is clearly on us, for reasons everyone is aware of. But much of what the US administration is trying falsely to accuse us of applies to others as well.”

“That is why we say to our neighbors: Do not trust the Americans. They are sponsors of terrorism and do not distinguish between one country and another. All are enemies, and all these countries will end up having to defend themselves from a looming danger. It will do no one any good to regret not having stood by Iraq against America and Zionism,” according to Duleimi.

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