Saudi, Egyptian Leaders Pull the Democracy Rug from Under Washington
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
January 9, 2005, 7:44 PM (GMT+02:00)
Moderate Arab leaders aimed a damaging broadside at key US-sponsored election ventures, the more painful for its timing in the month when ballots were scheduled both in the Palestinian Authority and Iraq. It was fired inconspicuously by 21 Arab interior ministers gathered in Tunis last week and acted as a rude snub to the Bush administration’s diplomatic efforts to recruit Arab friends for help in bringing reluctant Iraqi Sunni voters to the January 30 poll.
Present at the conference from Sunday to Wednesday, January 2-5, in addition to the ministers, were Middle East and Persian Gulf chiefs of intelligence, police and domestic security in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, as well as outside counter-terror experts, including Americans.
DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report that, ahead of the event, Saudi and Egyptian governments promised Washington and Baghdad to initiate motions expressly condemning Iraqi terrorism and throwing a supportive mantle over the two January elections. What happened in Tunis left the Americans astonished and outraged by what they saw as a betrayal by their purported Arab friends. The key resolution said: “Arab interior ministers condemned all terrorist acts in Iraq targeting Iraqi security agents and the Iraqi police, as well as businesses and public, economic, humanitarian and religious institutions.” There was not a single cross word for the acts of violence against American troops or coalition allies.
This omission went down with Bush administration officials as not far short of a pan-Arab license to kill non-Iraqis, namely Americans and its allied forces.
Sunday, January 9, US embassy officials met with Iraqi’s supreme Muslim Council to ask them to revoke the order to Sunnis to boycott the election. The clerics offered to grant this wish on condition that the United States set a date for its departure from Iraq.
Adding fuel to the fire, Saudi interior minister Prince Nayef called a news conference after the event to pull out the old chestnut of another intractable conflict: “The Palestinians are not engaged in a war of terror,” he said, “but self-defense.”
This absolution for Palestinian terrorism could not have come at a worst time for American plans. An end to the Palestinian terror campaign against Israel is the key to a return to the peace map and the success of Mahmoud Abbas, whose election as Arafat’s successor, was expected Sunday, January 9, in negotiating a path to Palestinian statehood. Authoritative endorsement of Palestinian violence from a purportedly pro-American, moderate Arab League leader put the lid on the already faint prospect of the new Palestinian leader dealing with the violence.
Iraqi interim interior minister Falah Hassan Naqib tried reminding Prince Nayef and Egyptian foreign minister Habib al-Adli of their commitment. He was brushed aside. The independent draft he tabled denouncing terrorist attacks on US and allied forces was vetoed.
DEBKAfile’s Washington sources add that the administration views the performance of its Arab friends at Tunis as one of the most painful contretemps it has suffered in the war on global terror and a grave setback to its aspirations to lead the Middle East to stable democratic government, starting with the Palestinians and moving on to Iraq. President Bush and vice president Dick Cheney are reported fuming as never before, their ire directed at Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the powerful Saudi interior minister and the Egyptian foreign minister. They are now trying to find out in Riyadh if Nayef acted with or without approval from Crown Prince Abdullah in spearheading with Adli an Arab League measure that adds up to the virtual legalization of terrorist acts that are not directed against fellow Arabs.
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