AMMAN, Jordan, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Arab press roundup for Sept. 6:
Lebanon's an-Nahar commented Wednesday on the Israeli air, sea and land blockade on Lebanon, describing it as "dirty and criminal, violating the dignity of the world and all international laws." The mass-circulation daily added the terrorist attack against intelligence officers in Beirut Tuesday shows the Lebanese are now facing the Israeli blockade and the "siege of more terrorism." It said Israel is imposing a blockade from the outside, while terrorism is being imposed from inside, adding the country was "yesterday before the catastrophe of four new martyrs falling in an explosion" that targeted the convoy of top intelligence officers and aides. The anti-Syrian paper implied that Monday's attack was linked to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and an-Nahar's late managing editor and parliament member Gibran Tueini, and carried out by "ghosts the world are trying to identify through the international investigation commission." It said that "if we are beating the drums in Parliament to attract world attention to the Israeli blockade against us, which is a humiliation to the Security Council and international legitimacy before it's a humiliation to Lebanon, the return of the criminal terrorism blockade seems to be more dangerous." It said the first blockade comes at the hands of the "criminal Israeli enemy, but the second kind comes at the hands of the ghosts."
Kuwait's al-Rai al-Aam complained that more than 2,000 Iraqis have been killed in the past three months in a sectarian civil war "which the U.S. occupying forces have worked long" to ignite. It said that murder according to identity is giving the American forces justifications to remain in Iraq and giving reason for the international community and Iraqi government to maintain the occupation. "Killing hundreds of Iraqi civilians daily is one of the most important fruits of the American administration's plans, which lures hundreds of sleeping cells from al-Qaida and the so-called Iraqi resistance to kill the people of their own country," it said. The pro-government daily opined this was a "filthy pre-emptive military strategy of the U.S. administration to fight what it calls international terrorism," saying the aim of this strategy is to preoccupy the Islamic militants with the complicated Iraqi politics and prevent the U.S. administration from shifting terrorism to its own territories. The paper called on all Iraqis to be aware of not falling into the trap of the American plan for a civil war and to exercise self-restraint towards the crimes, saying the Iraqis should "take into consideration the size of the conspiracy being concocted" for their country.
Qatar's al-Watan said in a commentary the Iraqi Kurdish issue has become more complicated as the Kurds have taken separation measures that are being exploited by the American-British occupation of Iraq. The pro-government daily added there have been many Arab mistakes made in dealing with the Kurdish issue, especially in Iraq under toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime, which it said had developed feelings for independence from Iraq. It argued that repressing and marginalizing the Kurds has led them to take more measures to pave the way for independence. The paper said the latest decision in northern Iraq's Kurdistan to raise the Kurdish flag without the Iraqi national flag came under the pretext that the Iraqi flag represents the former Baath Party. It said this pretext was illogical because Iraq "existed before and after Baath, and the flag here is a symbol for the unity of Iraq before anything else." It warned that if a Kurdish state is formed in northern Iraq, it will "fall into the regional strategic web... and will become prey to more exploitation from the United States and its allies." The Kurds, it said, have the right to express their national identity through a real united, democratic Iraq where no sect is superior over another, "not a democratic Iraq in the American way that wants to turn democracy into a path towards a civil war."
Bahrain's Akhbar al-Khaleej said in a commentary the national flag of any nation is a sacred symbol of the country's sovereignty, heritage, national identity and social unity. It added that most Arab countries under dictatorships do not use the flag as an expression of the identity of its people because many of the national flags are created according to the whims of the leaders without consulting the people and political forces. The pro-government daily argued the recent Kurdish decision to take down the Iraqi flag and raise the Kurdish one in northern Iraq came as sectarian and ethnic contradictions are involved in a social struggle under occupation. "It is impossible to understand this unjustified move except within the context of ethnic, separation jingoism of Iraqi Kurdish leaders under the influence of arrogance stemming from huge gains made after the Iraqi forces were pushed out of Kuwait (in 1991) and established their own autonomous region in Kurdistan," it said. The paper opined the Kurdish "ego" also expanded with their success after the toppling of Saddam's regime and their influence in drawing up the country's new constitution while under American occupation. It insisted the Kurdish flag crisis is a transparent expression of the crisis surrounding the Iraqi people over their national identity amid divisions and power struggles.
The London-based al-Hayat published a cartoon indicating that the Iraqi Kurdish flag decision effectively means breaking up Iraq. The cartoon in the Saudi-financed daily shows the Iraqi flag with the bottom part cut off and a pair of scissors lying below it. A fat man in a suit is seen walking away from the Iraqi flag and is carrying a pole with the bottom strip of the Iraqi flag.
