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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (289828)	1/28/2009 11:19:52 AM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 793896

Now things are getting interesting! The cracks come into the open... reuters.com CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt aired its grievances against Iran, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, saying they worked together in the fighting over Gaza to provoke conflict in the Middle East. "(They tried) to turn the region to confrontation in the interest of Iran, which is trying to use its cards to escape Western pressure ... on the nuclear file," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in an interview with Orbit satellite channel broadcast Wednesday. Aboul Gheit also said that Egypt undermined Qatar's attempts to arrange a formal Arab summit on Gaza earlier this month, arguing that it would have damaged "joint Arab action." "Egypt made the summit fail... This summit, if it had taken place as an Arab summit with a proper quorum, would have damaged joint Arab action. We can see what others do not see," he said. The interview was broadcast Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning and the state news agency MENA carried excerpts. The comments are the first acknowledgement by Egypt that it actively sought to prevent the Doha summit on January 16, which was the subject of a bitter tug-of-war between rival Arab states. It also indicated that a reconciliation meeting in Kuwait last week between Egypt and Saudi Arabia on one hand, and Qatar and Syria on the other, had only a short-term effect. Qatar failed to win enough support to hold a formal Arab League summit on Gaza but it went ahead anyway with an informal consultative meeting of Arab leaders. The wrangling reflected deep divisions between Arab governments. On one side Saudi Arabia and Egypt, wary of the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, favored discussing Gaza at a separate economic summit in Kuwait a few days later. Diplomats say Egypt resents the Qatari challenge to its traditional role as leading Arab mediator and dislikes the influence of the satellite television channel Al Jazeera, which is based in Doha and owned by the Qatari government. "Some people imagined that a satellite channel could bring down the Egyptian state, without realizing that Egypt is much stronger than that," Aboul Gheit said. "Egypt is very big and has extensive influence despite attempts to influence this stance and role, whether in the Al Jazeera channel or other channels," he added. The Egyptian minister also criticized Hamas for what he called its coup against the forces of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip in 2007. (Writing by Jonathan Wright; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (289828)	1/29/2009 5:02:51 PM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 793896

The shoe is on the other foot when the terrorists are PKK rather than Hamas, apparently. Erdogan doesn't have a problem with a little of the ole "ultra violence" when the terrorists are on his border. bloomberg.com Erdogan Clashes With Peres, Storms Out of Davos Panel By Calev Ben-David and Matthew Benjamin Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out of a panel discussion in protest after clashing with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum over Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip. Erdogan, 54, was attempting to respond to Peres’s defense of the military actions after the session had run over its scheduled time and the moderator tried to cut him off. Erdogan, who protested that he was being given less time than Peres, said he would not return to Davos and quickly left the stage. Erdogan had accused Israel of not respecting the democratic rights of the Palestinians and of using excessive force during its 22-day offensive against Hamas in Gaza that concluded on Jan. 18. Peres, 85, responded that Israel was only trying to defend itself, and accused Hamas of being a “cruel, dictatorial regime.” Israel and Turkey have full diplomatic relations, extensive trade ties and close security relations. Erdogan, leader of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development party, has been critical of Israel over its actions in Gaza. Speaking to reporters after he walked out, Erdogan said he was annoyed that the moderator, David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist, didn’t let him make his points. He said he “didn’t target” Jews, Israelis or Peres, though he called Peres’ arguments “untrue.” Ignatius couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. Audience Reaction Members of the audience reacted with silence as Erdogan bolted, leaving World Economic Forum President and founder Klaus Schwab to make a closing statement that attempted to end on a peaceful note. Spectators included Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama. She was in the front row. Peres’s defense of Israel’s military operation was “belligerent,” said Abu Eesa Niamatullah, an Imam from northwest England. “And I don’t just say that because I’m a Muslim.” Stuart Eizenstat, a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling LLP and a former U.S. deputy Treasury secretary in the Clinton Administration, said Peres’s comments were the “single best defense of why Israel reacted to Gaza.” “Nobody can solve this problem with a temper tantrum any more than you can solve it with an Uzi or a Kalashnikov,” Eric Clemons, professor of management and information management at Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. “I’m surprised -- the rest of the day was so hopeful.” To contact the reporter on this story: Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at cbendavid@bloomberg.net; Matthew Benjamin in Davos at mbenjamin2@bloomberg.net Last Updated: January 29, 2009 15:16 EST