IRAQ: UAE press urges Arabs to join anti-war camp

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is by the United Arab Emirates news agency (WAM)

ABU DHABI, Feb 8 2003 (IPS) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) press today called on Arab countries to join anti-war camp to head off the devastating war and foil a Zionist-motivated US plot.

– The possible US-led war is not against Iraq alone. It goes beyond Iraq’s border to the entire Arab world. Therefore, a common active Arab diplomatic drive should be launched in coordination with anti-war powers – France, Germany and Russia – to ward off the disaster of war and bog down the US-Zionist scheme," wrote the ‘Akhbar Al Arab’ in its editorial today.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s presentation on Wednesday before the UN Security Council and his recent statements left no doubt about the United States’ real intentions towards the Arab region. ôPowell has clearly stated that the ambitious objective behind Washington’s rush to war against Iraq is the complete ‘remaking’ of the Middle East to serve US interests," the paper warned.

ôIraq’s invasion is no longer a matter of likely speculations and scenarios because Powell has dropped away the mask of dove to join the hawk swarm," the paper said, warning that Iraq is just the jump-start for the dramatic restructuring of the region -borders and regimes – to suit US interests with special care of Israel’s ambitions to dominate the region and control its huge resources.

ôThe game is quite simple, the US is going to attack Iraq not to dismantle its alleged weapons of mass destruction or because of its alleged links to Al Qaeda cell, but to remake the region and this entails invasion of Iraq, destruction of its structure of power, the occupation of the entire country for a certain period and installation of a client government that will act in future as a claw to threaten anti-US governments in the region, especially Syria and Iran," the paper said.

Taking a tough line, the Dubai-based ‘Al Bayan’ sounded the alarm bell, calling the Arabs to wake up from their deep slumber before it is too late. ôArab reaction to Powell’s presentation added fresh evidence of the Arab regime” weakness in front of the US offence to dismember and remake the Middle East," the paper said.

The US objective, it added, is to make a new geo-strategic map of the Arab world in which Israel will be the dominant power. ôWe heard no bold Arab reaction to Powell’s threats to attack Iraq and his fabricated evidence on Baghdad’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. It is regrettable that there was no Arab reaction to expose Powell’s drama to invade Iraq.

ôUnfortunately," the paper said, ôreactions from western capitals (Moscow, Paris and Berlin), although not in defense of Iraq or Arabs, were stronger and more decisive than those of Arab capitals because their interest are vulnerable to the US cowboy invasion.

ôWhile these countries are trying to hamper the US war wagon to protect their own interests in the region, the Arabs are involved in selling the US proposal of sending Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to exile to avert war," the paper concluded.