Islamic countries meet to discuss US
Find a Conversation
| Sat, 04-17-2004 - 1:53pm |
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Jasbant Singh
April 16, 2004 | KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- The world's largest Islamic organization will hold an urgent meeting next week to discuss rising violence in Iraq and the recent U.S. policy shift on Israel's withdrawal from the Palestinian territories.
Malaysia, the chair of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, said Friday it expects foreign ministers and members of various OIC committees dealing with Iraq and the Palestinians to attend the extraordinary meeting on Thursday, though officials said the exact number of participants was not confirmed.
In a statement carried by the Bernama national news agency, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the meeting's main purpose would be to "discuss current developments pertaining to the Palestine issue, particularly the recent Israeli plan for unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.''
It would also "seize the opportunity to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq,'' Bernama reported
A joint communique would be issued at the end of the meeting, Syed Hamid said.
Earlier this week, Syed Hamid said the meeting might be held May 4, but the date was brought forward after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat sent a personal appeal for more urgency.
Syed Hamid said President Bush's backing this week of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage'' Israel from Palestinian territory was a new development that made the meeting urgent. Palestinians and Arab leaders have condemned the plan, saying it allows Israel to unilaterally draw borders and grab land.
Opposition to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories is one of the few issues that OIC members agree wholeheartedly on. Though most OIC members opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, they haven't been able to find a joint position on the handover of power from U.S. administrators to Iraqis.
Last month, a summit of Arab leaders fell apart less than 48 hours before it was to have started because of differences among various states about how to further peace efforts with Israel and a U.S.-backed reform plan for the Middle East.
http://www.salonmag.com/news/wire/2004/04/16/muslim_nations/index.html

They'll have even more to talk about with the assassination of Rantisi.
>"The most recent meeting also represented a strategy shift on the part of the Bush administration. For the first time, the United States now does not look at settlements as illegal or obstacles.
I think the Bush administration made it very clear that the Israeli clash with the Palestinians is an extension of the U.S. war on terrorism. And I think Sharon has succeeded in convincing the Bush administration that his struggle with the Palestinians is similar to the American war against terrorism.
Secondly I think we need to understand that the Bush administration has refused to condemn the so-called assassinations or judicial killings of Palestinian leaders.
All these steps have convinced Ariel Sharon that he has a green light to move against Hamas and Jihad. A few days ago, Sharon said even Yasser Arafat, the president of the Palestinian National Authority, is marked for assassination. Yet the Bush administration moved very quick to say that the United States is opposed to the assassination of Arafat.
Sharon believes he has a historical opportunity, a major military opportunity, to really escalate the confrontation against Hamas and Jihad and to do it for good. But what we need to remember is that escalation begets counter-escalation, and I believe that violence will bring about more violence. And the peace process becomes more and more distant. More Jewish and Palestinian blood will likely be shed as a result of today's events."<
Excerpt from a 'phone
Newsview: Arab Anger at U.S. Is Mounting
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ARAB_ANGER?SITE=KING&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=US.html
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Egypt's president says Arabs hold a "hatred never equaled" toward America. Jordan's king abruptly postpones a visit to the White House. And those are among the United States' best friends in the Arab world.
The war in Iraq, and a shift on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, has left the Bush administration facing growing hostility and an estrangement from friends across the Middle East.
"There is enormous anger in the Arab world that needs to be dealt with," said Nail Al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington.
The White House minimized the problem Tuesday, saying President Bush did not feel snubbed by King Abdullah II's decision to leave the United States early and skip a planned meeting with Bush at the White House this week. Spokesman Scott McClellan said the meeting was merely postponed until May and chalked it up to "domestic issues" in Jordan.
That's probably right, said Jim Phillips, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.
"(Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak is under pressure, King Abdullah is under pressure," from their own citizens and groups in their countries angry at the United States, Phillips said. "They're using this not only against the U.S. but against Arab leaders allied with the U.S. - which is why Mubarak and Abdullah are reflecting those pressures in different ways."
Mubarak and Abdullah "feel vulnerable," said Shibley Telhami, a Middle East expert and professor at the University of Maryland. "Every time they feel vulnerable they distance themselves from the U.S. ... Governments often do that for their own survival."
It's unclear whether the estrangement is temporary or longer-lasting. There already are signs that the United States may be considering some measures to reassure Arabs about its intentions on the Palestinians.
Secretary of State Colin Powell offered public reminders on Tuesday that the Bush administration was determined to launch a Palestinian state next year and that any decision to keep Israeli settlements on the West Bank as part of a final peace deal would require Palestinian consent.
Powell noted that Bush, when meeting last week with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, endorsed Sharon's move to evacuate Israeli settlements in Gaza and on the West Bank.
That, Powell said, was "something that people have asked for and wanted for a long time."
On Iraq, Powell said he hoped that as people see progress toward establishing security and democracy there, that "the difficulties we're having with Arab opinion toward the United States will change."
Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and director of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, said, "The question is how President Bush will balance what he has done for Israel in response to Arab complaints."
That will be on the agenda when Abdullah calls on Bush and when the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - the framers of the so-called road map for peacemaking - convene next month, Indyk said in an interview.
The Bush administration probably will try to bridge the gap, agreed Telhami, because right now it needs Arab allies to help with its efforts in Iraq.
"The Bush administration finds itself vulnerable on the Iraq issue, needing a lot of international cooperation to succeed in Iraq unlike what was expected a year ago. And they need these governments," Telhami said. "They're going to have to find a way to work with them."
Jordan and Egypt are the only two of Israel's Arab neighbors to have a peace treaty with Israel. Yet people in both countries were enraged last week when Bush endorsed an Israeli proposal to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank but keep Jewish settlements on other West Bank land claimed by the Palestinians.
Suspicious of Bush's strong support for Israel and his endorsement of Sharon as a man of peace, the Arabs have not been dissuaded by Bush's support for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said Sharon's initiative creates a historical opportunity for the Palestinians and the entire region, not only for Israel.
"Israel has always believed, and still does, in a solution to the conflict that will be achieved through meaningful negotiations without prejudice," he said.
But Mubarak told the French newspaper Le Monde that because of the war in Iraq and Washington's continued support of Israel, hatred of Americans in the Arab world had reached new heights.
"There exists today a hatred never equaled in the region," he told Le Monde.
----
EDITOR'S NOTE - Barry Schweid has covered Middle East diplomacy for The Associated Press since 1973.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
cl-nwtreehugger
>"Jordan and Egypt are the only two of Israel's Arab neighbors to have a peace treaty with Israel. Yet people in both countries were enraged last week when Bush endorsed an Israeli proposal to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank but keep Jewish settlements on other West Bank land claimed by the Palestinians."<
The timing couldn't have been worse for the Sharon's "disengagement plan" & Bush's very public approval. Isn't this tantamount to waving a red flag at a bull. IMO. If the US weren't engaged in Iraq &, the almost forgotten, Afganistan maybe it wouldn't have caused such an uproar but given the present situation it's a disaster in the making. Where is their common sense?
>"But Mubarak told the French newspaper Le Monde that because of the war in Iraq and Washington's continued support of Israel, hatred of Americans in the Arab world had reached new heights."<
I hope these people realize this isn't
>" I would urge that we keep our eye on the goal, a free Iraq, and not get caught up in a desire to "show them whose strongest". "<
Unfortunately there are those that disagree.
The message that the US is offering them democracy is lost.
"Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gift". Virgil