AMMAN, Jordan, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Arab press roundup for Jan. 8:
Qatar's al-Rayah said Monday that despite all the failures of the Iraqi government security plans and the American forces, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government insists on following the same "American approach." The pro-government daily added in its editorial Maliki's new security plan is therefore bound to fail yet again. "The issue of Iraq's security is clear to all and is linked to the sectarian influence that has infiltrated into the security services and the militias responsible for the security deterioration," it insisted. The paper stressed that Maliki's government knows this fact and should know that no security plan will work even if a million American and Iraqi troops participate. No plans, programs or new troop deployments are needed, it opined. What is needed is to dismantle the militias responsible for the killings and kidnappings taking place with the knowledge of the government, it said. The daily added the Americans themselves have admitted to the failure of their strategy in Iraq, along with all the Iraqi security plans, due to the U.S. influence. "But it is unfortunate that the Maliki government follows the Bush administration in its declarations of new security plans that even the Parliament speaker has rejected as unconstitutional," it said.
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The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi commented when Iraq's Maliki says he wants to resign before his term ends, it means he has either realized his role has ended with the endorsement of the execution of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, or he has information that the U.S. administration has decided to replace him with another. The independent Palestinian-owned daily described Maliki as "too small for his position," insisting he harmed his government, his (Shiite) sect and American allies when he allowed the provocation of a "man in the stature and size of Saddam Hussein just moments before his execution by hurling disgusting sectarian insults and dancing around his corpse, kicking it with their feet." It said when Maliki fails to control a "small execution room and the behavior of 20 people there, how can he manage a big and complicated country like Iraq?" It argued that Maliki's biggest challenge will be the arrival of 30,000 additional American troops to Baghdad and disarming the militias, especially the Shiite al-Mahdi militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, the prime minister's main supporter. The paper predicted the American forces will particularly target this militia because it is accused for carrying out most of the sectarian killings and genocide in Baghdad. Maliki, it added, did not hesitate in signing the death penalty against Saddam and his aides, but he might be reluctant in executing American orders to liquidate al-Mahdi militia and other death squads. "And that's why he is paving the way for an early withdrawal from the prime ministry," it said.
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Lebanon's as-Safir complained that from Lebanon to Palestine and Iraq, brothers have turned into rivals, and even enemies, where each party threatens the other and are destroying their homelands. Reasonable political rhetoric has vanished, added the independent daily, and chaos is prevailing as the U.S. plan for a "new Middle East" is quickly becoming a reality. It said the political crisis that started in Lebanon is deviating from its original path as the rivals suddenly become friends with the foreigners, allowing external intervention on the pretext they are supporting a political plan under the slogan of freedom and independence. The mass-circulation, with Arab nationalist trends, added that in Palestine, the "blood of brothers in the homeland and the struggle for liberation" is now no longer a red line, "where the weapons for liberation are being used in internal differences." And in Iraq, it continued to say, the political "mistakes and sins" being committed by the rulers will likely make it necessary to continue the occupation.
Bahrain's al-Wasat daily said in a commentary the events in the Middle East are now more complicated than at any other time, where the United States supports the Shiites in Iraq but fights them in Lebanon and Iran. And in Lebanon, it said, the U.S. administration supports the Sunnis, while it fights the Sunnis in Iraq and Afghanistan. The pro-government daily added that while Washington supports a new national unity government in Palestine, it opposes early elections in Lebanon. "This is the first image of a larger depressing scene that showed Saddam Hussein at this sensitive stage" as a sacrifice, it said. The daily added that although the Palestinian Hamas and Iran are allies, Hamas saw Saddam as a leader of resistance against occupation and his execution as a political assassination, while Iran regarded him as a tyrant who deserved to be hanged. Saudi Arabia, it noted, denounced the hanging, while Kuwait saw it as just, even though the two Gulf states are allies. This type of mixing must end, it insisted, and all parties should find something to unify them. It said the region and its people cannot bear another strike that could bring "a tragic end. What is happening today is the politicization of sects and ideologies for the sake of achieving political sectarian objectives sought to end" civil society plans.
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Jordan's al-Ghad published a cartoon showing that despite the American-Iranian animosities, the U.S. administration is presenting Iraq on a silver platter to the Iranians. The cartoon in the independent daily shows a happy-looking George W. Bush, dressed in a cowboy outfit, holding out a covered platter, with "Iraq" written on it. He is handing the serving dish over to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, who holds out his robe, as if waiting for the plate to fall into his lap.
