- There is increasing frustration in the Arab world at
the failure of the region's governments to take co-ordinated action to
stop the invasion of Iraq.
-
- A Palestinian author, Edward Said, in an article published
in several Arab papers, described the region as a "panorama of desolation".
-
- What was noticeable, he went on, was "the utter
passivity and helplessness of the Arab world· How can a region of
almost 300 million Arabs wait passively for the blows to fall without attempting
a collective roar of resistance?"
-
- The failure of Arab leaders to convene an emergency summit
to discuss the Iraq crisis has drawn strong media and public criticism.
"Here is a sovereign Arab state about to be attacked by an outside
power, and Arab heads of state can not even agree to meet and talk about
it," said Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of al-Quds al-Arabi.
-
- "The ordinary Arab on the street is asking why it
is that the regimes have done nothing to save the region and its people
from attack," wrote a columnist in the pro-government Jordanian daily
al-Rai. "When will the Arabs decide to make a move to stop the expected
war?" wondered the opposition al-Dustour newspaper.
-
- The opposition Egyptian weekly al-Shaab lamented "the
silence that has fallen on the Arab world". "Despite the enormity
of what is about to happen, no one, neither officials nor the public, has
made a move to do anything about it."
-
- "Are we simply going to sit back and wait for the
knife to fall on Iraq?" asked a caller from Syria to a phone-in on
Abu Dhabi television.
-
- Several papers, in their coverage of the recent meeting
of regional foreign ministers in Turkey, highlighted the fact that the
only attempt to work for regional co-ordination on Iraq was taking place
outside the Arab world.
-
- "Some people are saying," a columnist in the
pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat wrote, "that the Arabs are incapable
of discussing and dealing with the Iraq issue among themselves. I believe
it is best that we recognise the truth of this, rather than go on deceiving
ourselves."
-
- In the Arab media as a whole there is little confidence
in the ability of the region's leaders, or the willingness of Saddam Hussein,
to take the necessary steps needed to avoid war.
-
-
- © Copyright of <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/pressoffice/index.jhtml>Telegraph
Group Limited 2003
- At 12:24 PM -0800 2/4/03, jr@rense.com wrote:
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/02/04/wirq204.xml
|
