Iraq Press Roundup

On Tuesday, the Association of Muslim Scholars' Al Basaer newspaper carried an editorial titled "The American-Iranian dispute: Is it a maneuver, a coalition or a struggle?"

It said the Gulf region doesn't comply with the law of peace, and that it is a future battlefield advertising the U.S. project in Iraq and the region.

The editorial said that for more than a year now, the media and political institutes have been revealing a state of constant struggle between Iran and the United States, stating statements of threats and open accusations on the level of presidents and governments.

"This struggle has been presented with many faces," the paper said, "yet it doesn't go toward armed conflict, security disputes or threats related to cooperative interests the U.S. government and Iran have."

It said U.S. intelligence relies on the media to specify goals and convince the public of the U.S. calls for a withdrawal.

"The United States calls for a free world represented by the U.N. work in the fields of human rights, an institute that didn't attain any move toward ending the suffering of the Iraqi people," it said.

It added that what the United Nations and the United States call for is against the reality of the situation in Iraq where crimes of massacres, displacement of millions of Iraqis and human-rights violations are committed by U.S. forces.

"All of these crimes are portrayals of the U.S. conservatives, a mentality of 100 or 200 people in Washington who want to build their empire using blood and a state of terror," the Saudi-based newspaper said.

"The Arab region was chosen for economical, political, military and geostrategic reasons," it said.

Al Basaer newspaper said Iran has a distinguished relationship with the United States and Europe as it was the United States' major military ally in the 1970s. "The Iranian military ideology is similar to that of the U.S. military in terms of arming and organizing," it said.

"The U.S. has political and strategic interests that it shares with Iran since the shah of Iran became a 'policeman' in the Arab and Gulf region to secure U.S. and Europe's interests, and defended the region against the Soviet Union's domination on the Middle East," it added.

The paper said that era ended when Shiites took control of Iran, followed by the Iraq-Iran war, and the U.S. and European military presence to protect their interests in the region.

"After the U.S. occupation in 2003, Iran reappeared as major competitive to the interests of the West," it said.