Self Interest Makes the World Come Round
By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff
Friday, October 4, 2002; 8:49 AM
It's every country for itself.
While Iraq and the United States maneuver diplomatically at the United Nations, opinionmakers around the world are already concluding that a U.S. attack on Baghdad is inevitable. The result is not multinational consensus but a chorus of "What's in it for us?" Even America's foes are stepping aside, online observers say.
Iran: No Sympathy for the Devil
When Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri visited his country's long-time enemy on a campaign to slow down the American war juggernaut, the reformist Tehran Times told him to buzz off, saying "Iraq is totally untrustworthy, and that its leaders will not keep any promises."
Who would have expected Iranian reformists to sound so much like Dick Cheney?
Sabri was in Iran seeking to make nice about disagreements left over from the Iran-Iraq war in which Saddam Hussein gassed Iranian troops. With Washington threatening, the Iraqi emissary hoped to convince his Persian hosts to let bygones be bygones.
Forget about it, said the Times.
"Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said, the two sides will discuss problems remaining from the imposed war. Who is going to believe that Naji Sabri, Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials will remain committed to what they say today? The most important principle after the end of the war was the exchange of POWs and the remains of the soldiers, but the untrustworthy officials in Baghdad have not complied even with this issue during the past thirteen years. Is it suddenly possible to trust them now and conclude a peace agreement and resume normal ties?"
The paper's message to Baghdad was virtually the same as that of the United States, often described in Iran as the Great Satan:
"If our officials, during their meetings with Sabri succeed in convincing him and his boss in Baghdad that Iraq should fully comply with UN resolutions, cooperate with the world body, and allow arms inspectors back in Iraq, one may conclude that Sabri's trip has had some positive results for the region. Otherwise, the trip is not likely to have any positive outcome."
The bottom line for the Tehran Times was clear:
"We believe that no enmity is permanent and that one should be guided by national interests in foreign policy, Hence, we must try to safeguard our national interests first and foremost."
Syria: Going Along to Get Along
Ibrahim Hamidi, a Damascus-based journalist, writing for the independent Lebanon Star says Syria is ready to abandon its opposition to Washington's aggressive diplomacy.
"While Damascus was not expected to retract its public opposition to external attempts at regime change, the Syrians nevertheless stressed that Baghdad must implement UN Security Council resolutions. In other words, should a new resolution be issued by the Security Council, it would be very difficult for Syria to stand against it especially since Syria has been insisting for a long time that Israel implement Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 and return the Golan Heights."
"Damascus will do its best to minimize Iraqi losses and will work hard to prevent the fragmentation of Iraq and the possibility of an independent Kurdish state in the north. The Syrians are anxious to minimize the fallout of having a pro-American regime on their eastern flank. Syria is worried about being hemmed in by pro-American states.
Hamidi sees a payoff for Syria's accommodating ways.
"For its part, Washington realizes that having a stable, secular Syria is critical to American interests in the Middle East. That is why the US will not object to the continuation of some form of economic cooperation between Damascus and Baghdad. Washington will also continue to support the Syrian role in Lebanon, and will 'work hard to achieve a settlement on all peace tracks according to UN resolutions 242 and 338.'"
Turkey: Let's Make a Deal
"The United States is going to hit Iraq," declared columnist Mehmet Ali Birand in the Turkish Daily News .
"How and when it will hit Iraq is not certain. Turkey has no choice. It is involved in this business whether it wants or not, whether it accepts it or not. It will definitely play a role. . . . Since this is the situation, since we will not be able to get out of this bind, let us let least get something in return.' "
That something, he suggested, was U.S. support for Turkey's admission to the European Union by a date certain.
Egypt: Anger and Resignation
"A frequent complaint voiced throughout the Arab world is that major powers, especially the US and the UK, apply double standards in their handling of issues," wrote Ibrahim Nafie, editor in chief of Al-Ahram Weekly.
"Arabs who point to such discrepancies are variously told that they are being oversensitive [or are] given to conspiracy theorising."
Nafie was referring to Israel, of course. Washington's assurances to the Arab world that it does not have a double standard about compliance with UN resolutions, he wrote, was exposed as a "sham" by Israel's initial defiance of a U.N. resolution calling for an end to its siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters
"Here is Israel, exercising a brutal form of colonialism and unleashing a massive offensive against an occupied people and their national authority while spurning any number of UN resolutions with impunity. There is Iraq, which has demonstrated its intention to comply with all outstanding demands stipulated under the relevant Security Council resolutions, yet the US and the UK continue to lobby intensively for the Security Council's approval to attack Iraq should they, and they alone, determine that such a strike is warranted."
Yet in the same issue of Al-Ahram Weekly Nevine Khalil and Soha Abdelaty concluded that "If worse comes to worse and a bill of force against Baghdad is obtained, Egypt will probably be left with few options other than to support the new resolution."
"Analysts believe that Cairo will eventually have to give in to international pressure and when it does so it will support the French proposal. The French have suggested a resolution concerning the matter of weapons inspections and possibly a second one about the use of force."
Canada: Rhetorical Help
The Globe and Mail of Toronto said
"Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has made the right decision by backing U.S. insistence that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein accede to a tough new UN demand on weapons inspectors. The draft resolution made public yesterday states that any obfuscation by Iraq would allow UN members to use 'all necessary means'-- code for military action -- to 'restore international peace and security.' "
But the paper added that Canada's "ability to back it up with military capacity is weak," noting that "the Canadian Forces' budget declined, in inflation-adjusted terms, by 30 per cent between 1988 and 2000."
"The biggest contribution Canada can make to a war against Iraq now, if it comes to that, will be its political and moral support. Its flag, in other words. Canadians should be under few illusions."
Germany: Hang Together
In the wake of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's effective use of an anti-war position to win reelection, columnist Peter Hort called on the German leader to take a less nationalistic position. Writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Hort said
"Schröder should now reaffirm his European duties in the search for common, rather than divisive, positions. A glance at Schröder's track record shows substantial damage to European relations. Under Helmut Kohl, other European countries learned to trust a German neighbor which, after unification, outweighed all its partners and assumed a different power-political role, but Schröder's egocentrism and penchant for unilateral initiatives have irritated many. Its neighbors have begun to doubt Germany's loyalty to the European alliance."
"The Europeans have not fully grasped that most of today's political, economic and ecological challenges extend beyond national boundaries. The United States is probably the last country in the world that, if need be, remains sovereign in its sphere of action and can resolve situations such as the Iraq crisis of its own accord. The Europeans cannot."
Emilie Bahr and Elizabeth Levin did research for this column. |
