Het Arabisch Vredes Initiatief

'Style or substance following Riyadh summit?
Michael F. Brown,
The Electronic Intifada,
2 April 2007

The Arab League peace initiative is back in play after an Israeli and American-imposed five-year hiatus. The return to the previously shunted aside proposal comes only because the Bush administration has utterly fouled the region -- from the bloody sectarian turmoil of Baghdad to the tsunami of human waste that recently swept through part of northern Gaza -- and has evidently concluded there is now a better hope of "fixing" Israel and Palestine than Iraq.In an ironic twist, the Bush administration claim that the road to Middle East peace runs through Baghdad has been inverted by the total collapse in Iraq. Now Jerusalem, borders and Palestinian refugees are on the agenda. Only the growing strength of Iran and desperation for some success in the region could lead the White House to its current position and the risk of failure similar to that of President Clinton in the final days of an eight-year run in office.The administration, represented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, reaches this juncture out of weakness and not strength. They have been cornered by the shortcomings of their own belligerence. Washington's weak Middle East hand actually provides a better-than-usual opportunity for positive peacemaking headway -- though the chances of success remain exceedingly slim. With Iran strengthened, the Bush family and its allies are reluctant to undercut Saudi Arabia. And the Saudis have started to handle changing circumstances with some adroitness. The Saudis' success in pushing through the Hamas-Fateh unity government/authority has evidently led to their recalibrating what the Bush administration will tolerate and to a testing of the fracture lines running between the United States, Europe and Israel. "It has become necessary," King Abdullah noted on the principal economic fault line, "to end the unjust blockade imposed on the Palestinian people as soon as possible so that the peace process can move in an atmosphere far from oppression and force."It remains to be seen, however, what the repercussions will be of King Abdullah's comment at the opening of the Riyadh summit that the American presence in Iraq constitutes "an illegal foreign occupation." To date the administration's public response has been quite restrained. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stated, "... We want to understand more clearly what it is exactly that he had in mind when he talked about an illegal occupation." McCormack also stressed the excellent personal relationship between President Bush and King Abdullah. Others, however, in Congress and think tanks are certain to be vociferous in their condemnation of King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia. Already, The New York Times notes that Simon Henderson, director of gulf and energy policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), claimed that King Abdullah's remarks legitimize attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. Defenders of an expansionist Israel are likely to try injecting 9/11 reminders into any discussion of Saudi involvement in Middle East peacemaking.'

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