The Iranian Conundrum
al Ahram / ayman el-amir
04-Aug-2009 (3 comments)
...Iran's Arab neighbours are conducting themselves no better than Israel. They are participating in psychological warfare against Iran. Israel has often boasted that it has at least one thing in common with its closest Arab neighbours: they agree that Iran is the major threat to Middle East stability. Some Arab countries have launched their own brand of propaganda against Iran, accusing it of seeking Shia denomination over Sunni Muslims. It is three decades since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Yet all of a sudden, in the past three years, secret Shia cells are being uncovered. Senior Sunni clergymen are now a regular fixture of newspaper articles, television interviews, talk shows and public debates decrying the dangerous spread of Shia orthodoxy. For Arab states in the Gulf, and major Arab countries of the Middle East, the concern is less about the spread of Shia influence than Iran's revolutionary rhetoric destabilising corrupt and decrepit regimes that hang on to power against the will of their people. Most Arab states with tottering autocratic regimes depend on the US and Western powers for their political survival. As a consequence they are falling in line behind the US- Israeli psychological campaign. Some of them, like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with growing Muslim-Shia minorities, have resisted any call for a regional defence alliance including Iran. While most Arab Gulf states are dotted with US military, naval and air bases, Abu Dhabi now has a French military ... >>>
rosie is roxy is roshan

Arabian nightmares

by rosie is roxy is roshan on Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:23 AM PDT

What about the Al Ahram conundrum? Who could be more autocratic than Egypt?

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Related (on the Shia/Sunni conflict in Saudi Arabia):

//iranian.com/main/news/2009/03/02/king-abdullah-has-no-robes

 



Balatarin
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rosie is roxy is roshan

Oh, no, it isn't that I disagree with the argument,

by rosie is roxy is roshan on Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:02 AM PDT

I think he is right. It's that I'm always surprised at the variety of opinions in Al Ahram. Remember when you told me it was a mouthpiece for the Egyptian government? Well, after the Dabashi article here (who I like very much, purple prose effect aside...), I remembered he writes there regularly, so I started reading them again. This is an op-ed which doesn't seem to reflect anyone's perspective but the author's (legitimate) one. While at the same time he conveniently dodges the issue of where the Egyptian government really sits in the middle of all this mess, but (unless I'm seriously mistaken), they have more than their share of their own puppety, autocratic aspects. I can't figure Al Ahram out. That's all I meant to suggest.

Maybe you can give me a clue.


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Ostaad

rosie, it's all there...

by Ostaad on Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:46 AM PDT

"For Arab states in the Gulf, and major Arab countries of the Middle
East, the concern is less about the spread of Shia influence than
Iran's revolutionary rhetoric destabilising corrupt and decrepit
regimes that hang on to power against the will of their people.
Most Arab states with tottering autocratic regimes depend on the US
and Western powers for their political survival. As a consequence they
are falling in line behind the US- Israeli psychological campaign."

If you're looking for a more explicit indictment of Arab regimes' despotic rule and violation of civil/human rights of their peoples, then you don't know anything about the ME and things are done and said. Remember, Al Ahram is an "official" paper, but the author has done his best to convey his criticism of "them" too.

It's all there in black and while pixels, girlfriend. 

Nice piece, BTW.


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