Weekly Arab Press Review (fwd)

["Clement M. Henry" <chenry@mail.la.utexas.edu>]

From a good Kuwaiti source - Ghabra got his PhD here at UT in 1986! --CH
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2002 15:27:49 +0300 (AST)
From: Arab Press <arabpress@csfs-kuwait.org>
To: alnakib@csfs-kuwait.org
Subject: Weekly Arab Press Review

                          Weekly Arab Press Review

                 The Center for Strategic and Future Studies
                              Kuwait University

The Center for Strategic and Future Studies is a Kuwaiti think-tank,
affiliated with Kuwait University, and is directed by Dr. Shafeeq Ghabra.

The following report reviews the comments and reactions of Arab op-ed writers
in a selection of 13 Arabic newspapers, on the prevailing news issues in the
Arab world each week.

This week’s issue:  Anticipated changes in the region after an attack on Iraq.

The U.S. plan for strikes on Iraq and its possible repercussions on the region
are now truly decisive and unavoidable.  Some writers believe it is a U.S.
conspiracy to change the map of the region.  Others, on the other hand, say
Arab regimes have to realize the need to change their policies and to lay the
foundations for democracy and dialogue, rather than waiting for changes to be
imposed from the outside.

Shafeeq Ghabra, Director of the Center for Strategic and Future Studies and
Professor of Political Science at Kuwait University, wrote in Al-Rai Al-Aam
newspaper (Kuwait, Sept. 30), that the region is steering toward a period of
major change, “and saying it will only affect Iraq is a serious
underestimation of the gravity of the situation.”  The coming changes will
deeply affect politics in the Arab world.  “The new conditions would create
the ground for the reforms we direly need ... it is important we conduct these
reforms ourselves, not the United States.”

Writer Abdelhadi Boutaleb said in Al-Khaleej newspaper (United Arab Emirates,
Sept. 29), that the White House is hastily concocting a method to turn the
Arab region into a grand Middle East with different multiethnic and
multiracial entities.  This new Middle East will be created by dividing the
existent states or by annexing parts of them to non-Arab countries, above all
Israel and Turkey.  “Iraq will be the first experiment field to impose a new
democratic system set by the United States.  Taking lessons from this
experiment, the United States will impose the system on Iran and Syria,
followed by Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.”

Massoud Dhaher, Professor of History at the Lebanese University, wrote in Al-
Khaleej (U.A.E., Sept. 29), that the “Arab order is passing through the most
serious extent of disintegration amidst the absence of any planning.”

Sudanese writer Mohamed al-Hassan Ahmad said in al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper
(London, Sept. 24), that by seeking the support of Congress for his plan to
rearrange the Middle East, President Bush will receive “a mandate that is open
to all possibilities, including the division of Iraq or any other Arab
country, reshuffling governments, invading certain states, and settling
Palestinians in Jordan or Iraq.”

Mustafa Al-Fiqqi, member of the Egyptian parliament and a pan-Arab writer
wrote in al-Hayat newspaper (London, Sept. 17), that the United States and
Israel, among others, do not, in their Middle East policies, distinguish
between the three major issues: war on terror, the Iraqi issue and the Israeli-
Arab conflict.  “The psychological war is leaving its clear trace, with
pressure exerted on Egypt, the reputation of Saudi Arabia smeared, and Syria
intimidated.”

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss said in Assafir newspaper
(Lebanon, Sept. 17), that, as democratic practices are either completely
absent or very poor in Arab states, “the success of the U.S. military campaign
aimed at toppling the Iraqi regime and establishing a democratic system would
make all other Arab countries, including U.S. allies, the target of similar
campaigns in the future.”

Mohamed Awadh, deputy editor-in-chief of the Akhbar al-Yom in Cairo, said in
Al-Hayat (London, Oct. 3) -- in responce to statements made by the U.S.
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice that the values of freedom,
democracy and free enterprise do not stop at the edge of Islam -- that the
U.S. post-cold war strategy is allegedly focused on the establishment of
democracy and defending freedom in the Muslim world.  “The story was first
about Iraq and now it is about the whole Muslim world, which stretches from
Indonesia to the east, Nigeria to the west, and Sudan to the south, and it so
happens that oil is the common point between the different nations of this
part of the world.  That is why, for the first time ever, the United States is
not preoccupied with the cost of the war, for the simple reason that Iraq is
the bill, the cost and the prize.”

Mohamed Abdulaziz Rabie, Professor of International Political Economy at the
al-Akhawain University in Morocco, said in al-Hayat (London, Sept. 25), that
the invasion, occupation, and change of regime in Iraq would result in a
massive and quasi-permanent military presence in Iraq.  This presence
constitutes a real threat for all Arab states and for Iran, and would prevent
these states from exercising their political rights and protecting their
national interests.  It also means, according to Rabie, full U.S. control of
the Gulf, Arab and Iranian oil sources.

Islamic analyst Fahmi al-Howeidi said in al-Watan newspaper (Kuwait, Oct. 1),
that “when we contemplate the alliance between the United States and the
dictators of central Asian republics, we can easily deduce that the issue of
democracy becomes a U.S. preoccupation and a pretext only when a regime is not
in the service of U.S. interests.  The United States turned a blind eye to
Saddam’s atrocities before the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, including the
gassing of Kurds in Halabja, and when you remove the democracy cover-up you
will only see oil and smell its odor.”

Osama Saraya, editor-in-chief of al-Ahram al-Arabi, said in al-Anba newspaper
(Kuwait, Oct. 2), that Arab governments must understand the need “to grant
their people their economic, political and social rights, to put an end to
tyranny in the name of religion, and to pave the way for economic, political,
social, and cultural reforms.”

_________________________________________
Center for Strategic and Future Studies
Kuwait University
Tel : (+965) 483-4197
Fax : (+965) 482-4645