|
Saudi and Egyptian machinations derail US moves in ME
Debka article -liberal use of salt and pepper mandated Moderate Arab leaders aimed a damaging broadside at key US-sponsored election ventures, the more painful for its timing in the month when ballots were scheduled both in the Palestinian Authority and Iraq. It was fired inconspicuously by 21 Arab interior ministers gathered in Tunis last week and acted as a rude snub to the Bush administration's diplomatic efforts to recruit Arab friends for help in bringing reluctant Iraqi Sunni voters to the January 30 poll. Present at the conference from Sunday to Wednesday, January 2-5, in addition to the ministers, were Middle East and Persian Gulf chiefs of intelligence, police and domestic security in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, as well as outside counter-terror experts, including Americans. DEBKAfile's Washington sources report that, ahead of the event, Saudi and Egyptian governments promised Washington and Baghdad to initiate motions expressly condemning Iraqi terrorism and throwing a supportive mantle over the two January elections. What happened in Tunis left the Americans astonished and outraged by what they saw as a betrayal by their purported Arab friends. The key resolution said: "Arab interior ministers condemned all terrorist acts in Iraq targeting Iraqi security agents and the Iraqi police, as well as businesses and public, economic, humanitarian and religious institutions." There was not a single cross word for the acts of violence against American troops or coalition allies. This omission went down with Bush administration officials as not far short of a pan-Arab license to kill non-Iraqis, namely Americans and its allied forces. Sunday, January 9, US embassy officials met with Iraqi's supreme Muslim Council to ask them to revoke the order to Sunnis to boycott the election. The clerics offered to grant this wish on condition that the United States set a date for its departure from Iraq. Adding fuel to the fire, Saudi interior minister Prince Nayef called a news conference after the event to pull out the old chestnut of another intractable conflict: "The Palestinians are not engaged in a war of terror," he said, "but self-defense." Posted by: Elder of Zion 2005-01-10 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=53324 |