A regularly updated roundup of commentary from Arab newspapers
Syria needs US support, not threats
The Jordan Times on November 1 described US President George W. Bush as trigger-happy over Syria. The English-language daily argued that if Bush thought he could solve his problems at home by diverting attention from Washington to the region by escalating threats against Syria, the entire region will head for more trouble.
The paper, partially owned by the Jordanian government, said "with all the failures" of Bush's Middle East policies so far, "one would think Bush would try the card of diplomacy with some conviction for once".
The editorial added raising the threat of sanctions on Syria was counterproductive. Once Damascus is cornered, the leadership will be "deprived of vital maneuvering space to cooperate effectively with the UN, maintain stability at home, efficiently fight terrorism and introduce serious reforms", the paper said.
It added it was not the time to isolate Syria and undermine its regime because it risks a vacuum that would give extremism fertile soil to grow and plunge the region into more instability.
"This is the time to sit [Syrian] President Bashar Assad at the table, see how determined he is about reform and offer all possible help for Syria to embrace change," it stressed.
Syria avoided UN sanctions
Qatar's Al Rayah commented that the UN resolution urging Syria to cooperate with the probe into Rafiq Hariri's killing was a temporary success for Damascus.
The semi-official daily said that Syria managed to succeed in "pulling the rug" from under the countries that tried to "repeat the Iraqi scenario", because the resolution does not threaten sanctions against the country.
It said while there was a consensus to bring Hariri's killers to justice and though Syria promised to fully cooperate with the UN-appointed investigation, it was in Damascus' interests to "fulfil its commitments quickly and without reluctance by assisting the commission to get out of its crisis".
The unanimous adoption of the Security Council resolution, it added, was a message to Syria on the need to cooperate with the international probe, saying the text was "enough to convince it to fully cooperate".
It continued that in return, the chief international investigator, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, should also continue his work in total neutrality and objectivity, "away from the speculations that filled his report".
UN punishes Syria, ignores US, Israeli 'massacres'
Egypt's semi-official Al Gumhuriya criticized the UN Security Council for punishing Syria for a single assassination while ignoring the tens of thousands killed in US-controlled Iraq and Israeli assassinations of Palestinians.
The mass-circulation paper's editorial said the Pentagon admitted to 26,000 Iraqi casualties since the US-British invasion of a "sovereign state and member in the UN" in March 2003. At the same time, the paper complained, three Palestinian "martyrs" were killed in the West Bank on November 1 by Israeli forces, "joining the thousands of others who fell".
But yet, the daily continued, the UN Security Council, "which is supposed to represent the conscience of humanity, met on Monday, not to stop the massacres against the Iraqi and Palestinian people and not to order the American and Israeli occupiers to leave the stolen land, but to punish the Arab Syria on suspicion of one political assassination. ...Yet it ignores, in a very painful and open manner, those who have assassinated entire peoples."
Untrue to say Saddam ready for exile
Asharq Al Awsat ran a commentary on a report by Al Arabiya satellite TV channel that claimed toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein agreed to give up his position before the war.
The Saudi-owned, London-based daily said it was "unjust to the truth and history" to say Saddam was ready to give up his power to live in exile, even if he did say so to late United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan.
"The truth is that Saddam used to lie and stall to buy time," it commented, adding the former Iraqi leader was not the type to give up power.
The paper added that even during his trial in Baghdad last month, he was "under the illusion that he was still the president of Iraq despite everything that happened, and megalomaniacs believe they are cleverer than everyone else and can impose their conditions on the entire world."
Iran leader's remarks hurt Arabs and Muslims
Jordan's independent Al Ghad daily commented on October 31 that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cannot eliminate Israel from the map and that his comments only serve Israel.
The mass-circulation paper, owned by private Jordanian investors, said the conservative Iranian leader's comments on Israel were harmful for Arabs and Muslims, predicting that Israel will employ its "media arsenal and international political presence" to hurt Iran and the Palestinian issue.
It added that while Ahmadinejad's comments were typical of a revolutionary man, Israel "will spare no effort, as it has done since its illegal establishment on occupied lands," to show the world that it is a victim of the Arab and Muslim world.
It expected the Jewish state to resort not only to its traditional allies, but will also manage to receive sympathy from countries that have reservations about its occupation.
The paper said Israel will remain an enemy to the Arabs and Muslims as long as it continues to occupy Palestinian lands and rights, but that such uncalculated statements from the Iranian president will not contribute to achieving Palestinian and Arab rights. "Such a position might gain domestic popularity, but they lead to serious losses in the real struggle to support the Palestinians," the paper insisted.
Iran president's remarks are calculated
The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi said it did not believe that Ahmadinejad was naïve not to have calculated the risks of his comments on Israel, insisting he meant every word he said because he did not renege on them.
The independent Palestinian-owned daily said Iran was already under great pressure on many fronts, adding that Tehran was threatened with economic sanctions and possible military strikes by the United States or Israel. "Making such statements or not will not change this fact, for the United States will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons that will threaten the strategic balance with Israel and threaten the American domination over the Gulf oil," it argued.
The daily, with pan-Arab nationalist trends, said Washington did not need such radical comments to use as a pretext to strike Iran and its nuclear facilities.
It opined that Ahmadinejad had partially retrieved his country's leadership in the Muslim world and embarrassed the Arab leaders "who are re-aligning with America to launch a war against Iran on the excuse that it is interfering in Iraqi affairs, just as they aligned themselves with America to topple the regime in Iraq."
The daily said, however, the US administration was already exhausted from its two "unsuccessful wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan and cannot afford to open a third front with a "regional power like Iran."
Arabs looking for Syrian crisis exit
Another London-based daily, Al Hayat, said the Arabs have started to look for an exit for the Syrian crisis in light of a UN Security Council meeting on October 31 on the initial findings of the international probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Efforts to search for an exit, it said, indicated Syrian involvement in the Hariri murder. The Saudi-financed paper said looking for a way out of the Syrian crisis was understandable to prevent the investigation from turning into a tool to topple the Damascus regime.
It added that Syrian President Bashar Assad's formation of a special commission to probe Hariri's assassination was the beginning of cooperation, not the beginning of an exit from the crisis. However, the daily continued, it will be a way out if the international community accepted this Syrian judicial commission, "since it is a political framework that allows Syria to try its suspects and punish them if convicted".
It said such a solution would rule out forming an international court, which could lead to the idea of a regime change - an option, it insisted, that is not being sought by any party at this stage.
Finding, punishing Hariri killers not personal vendetta
Lebanon's anti-Syrian An Nahar said the moment of truth has arrived regarding the facts behind Hariri's assassination and there is "no need to continue lying", in reference to Syrian officials responding to the international probe.
The mass-circulation daily said the issue of finding and punishing Hariri's killers was not a personal one between the Hariri family and the Assad family, but a "crime committed against Lebanon and the Arab world".
It insisted the Security Council was now responsible to follow through with the issue until its conclusion in finding Hariri's killers and bringing them to justice no matter who they are.
"It must be clear that Lebanon and the international community are not targeting Syria and its people," the paper said, "but a group of terrorists who must be brought to justice." It demanded the suspects be hand over for an international tribunal, saying such a court would be the only one that would ensure credibility and transparency, "away from pressure and blackmail that any other judge, lawyer or witness may face."
US, Zionists liquidating all Arab resistance
The United Arab Emirates' Al Khaleej daily said it appears the US right-wing forces allied with the "Zionist entity" insist on liquidating all resistant forces in the Arab world and to strip them from self-defense before the end of George Bush's second term.
The pro-government paper said that after the occupation of Palestine and Iraq, the US and its Western allies were seeking to "clean out" the region from any military, political and economic influence.
It commented that Washington, London are Paris were exerting efforts to isolate Syria and any other country that allies itself with Damascus in order to "completely destroy it and weaken Lebanon, Palestine and any other that opposes a peace settlement" according to Israeli conditions.
The editorial continued to say the West was also trying to disarm the Palestinian and Lebanese forces opposing Israel to "satisfy the war criminals in the Zionist entity" and to threaten Lebanese peace. As the Arabs are being stripped from their weapons and all means to "say no, the Arabs are just watching as if this does not concern them", the paper criticized.
Review of Arab Editorials
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