AMMAN, Jordan, March 5 (UPI) -- Arab press roundup for March 5:
Saudi Arabia's Okaz commented in its editorial Monday on the meeting between Saudi King Abdullah and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in Riyadh that their statements on sectarian strife between Muslim Sunnis and Shiites were important. The semi-official daily stressed that their rejection of sectarian sedition indicates the "principle of transparency and honesty in dealing with the nation's issues after we have for long relied on running away, postponing and ignoring" the issue. It said their agreement on Sunni-Shiite divisions also indicates a sense of a serious danger of parties trying to exploit the strife at the expense of everyone. It is also a sign that Saudi Arabia and Iran have a will to reach specific solutions, "especially that the ghost of sedition exceeds the national sovereignty of the countries and threatens the entire region," it argued. With the power these two countries enjoy, the paper said, they can contain this danger and defuse the crisis of the tension between the two Muslim sects and "abort the conspiracies and schemes that target the region."
The London-based ash-Sharq al-Awsat said Arab summits should focus on resolving only one issue rather than a hundred that have no solutions. The Saudi-owned daily, distributed in many Arab capitals, added in a commentary the majority of Arab summit resolutions in the past have fallen in the trap of many and general resolutions that have not benefited or served the region's important issues. It said most of their final communiqués have shown the senior foreign ministry officials are lost in trying to reach consensus on "complicated texts...of a hundred Arab and international issues just for the sake of recording a moral stand" that has no effect. It stressed while the next Arab summit in Riyadh this month is a regular one, it comes at extraordinary times amid signs of war preparations between Iran and the United States while Iran insists on building its nuclear reactors close to the Arab Gulf states. It also comes with a war in Iraq and crises in Lebanon, Palestine and Sudan, it said. The Arab leaders cannot provide solutions to all these issues, the paper argued, but they can highlight one single issue, such as the Palestinian one, and insist on a single solution that is binding for all. "If the summit focuses on specific issues and reaches practical results, we would consider it a victory up to the standard of the summit," it said.
Qatar's al-Rayah welcomed the decisions and recommendations of the Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo, which ended Sunday, saying for the first time they placed a clear road map to resolve the Iraqi crisis and ending sectarian strife. The pro-government daily said in its editorial while the foreign ministers, preparing for the Arab summit in Riyadh, discussed 18 issues, the Iraqi one stood out. Their decisions on how to restore stability in Iraq, it argued, show that security plans alone, without political concessions, can never work. "The Arab ministers have put their leaders before a real test regarding their decisions and strong recommendations regarding Iraq and Palestine...to be endorsed" during the Riyadh summit, the paper said. "And therefore, the leaders have no choice except to ratify these recommendations to become binding on the Arabs so that the Arab League can restore its dignity and status as a united Arab voice, not a political forum that is ineffective in confronting the many Arab crises."
The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi criticized the Arab foreign ministers meeting for failing to defy the U.S.-led sanctions on the Palestinians and for seeking to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process after the Arab League had last summer declared it dead. "It seems the Arab foreign ministers have realized their governments cannot challenge the United States and break the sanctions imposed on the Palestinian people for fear of being punished and to avoid (U.S.) wrath," the independent Palestinian-owned daily commented. It insisted their position should have been stronger on the financial boycott of the Palestinians after the rival Fatah and Hamas leaders agreed to form a national unity government in Mecca last month. The paper remarked the only good thing that came out of the meeting is that they refused to amend the Arab peace initiative of 2002 according to Israeli and American demands. It said the Arab foreign ministers have proven they represent weak, confused and lost regimes which have no independent political positions. "And that's why their meetings have become nothing more than routine without practical results," it said.
Jordan's independent al-Ghad published a cartoon depicting the dominant powers pressuring weaker Arabs to make decisions in line with the interests of the powerful. The cartoon, titled "Preparations for the upcoming Arab summit," shows tiny men, dressed in traditional Arab attire and headdresses, sitting around a roundtable. Surrounding and hovering above them -- peering down on the Arabs -- stand five gigantic men, each wearing his traditional hat and holding his national flag behind his back. One is wearing clerical clothes and turban and is holding a small Iranian flag; another is wearing a suit with a cowboy hat holding the U.S. flag; a third holds a British flag. Another is holding a French flag and a fifth is holding a Russian flag. Each of the gigantic men has his hand on the table, either writing or dictating to the smaller Arabs.
