Sunni Shia relations 220907

Ulterior motives behind Middle East conference

By M. A. Saki

After leaving the Middle East conflict on the back burner for years, President George W. Bush has called for an international Middle East conference to be held in November.

However, there are clearly ulterior motives behind the proposal.

After biding their time for seven years, the neocons realized that they had to do something to extricate themselves from the Iraq quagmire and decided to organize a conference to win Arab states’ support for the Iraqi government, stem the flow of Arab fighters into Iraq, and decrease the allure of the Al-Qaeda network’s recruiting campaign.

Yet, in a bad omen, major Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Egypt have expressed reservations about participating in the conference.

“Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have made it clear that they see no point in attending the conference because of its unclear agenda,” a Palestinian Authority official said.

“The kingdom sees no benefit in any peace meeting or conference if it is not comprehensive and if it doesn’t tackle major issues,” Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said on September 12.

“If the conference doesn’t provide these things, then the kingdom’s participation is doubtful,” he added.

The Bush administration does not want to see lasting peace established in the Middle East, otherwise it would have openly embraced the Arab Initiative which calls on Israel to return the territories captured in 1967 in exchange for a comprehensive peace.

The initiative, drafted by Saudi Arabia, has clearly drawn up a road map for peace in the Middle East, and no one who really wants peace can say that the plan is not reasonable.

If U.S. officials were honest enough to acknowledge that Israel’s occupation of Arab lands and brutal suppression of resistance movements in Palestine are root causes of terrorism, they would not have hesitated to push for the implementation of the Arab Initiative.

The land for peace initiative is the most viable proposal to end the troubles in the Middle East, provides an opportunity to sharply curtail terrorism, and may even help efforts to bring stability to Iraq.

After 9/11, the U.S. proposed the greater Middle initiative to promote democracy in the Middle East in order to counter terrorism, but it did not mention that Israeli policy is a root cause of the phenomenon.

If Washington’s peace overtures are sincere, U.S. officials should seriously support the land for peace plan and pressure Israel to accept the initiative, and they should even put it on the agenda of the November meeting.

Source: Teheran times