[A-List] Gaddafi Says Arabs Should Not Alienate Iran

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm pleasantly surprised to learn that Gaddafi remembered to say the
right Third-Worldist thing, maybe just for old times' sake.  :->

I hope that the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, together with their
socialist and liberal allies, will be able to take power soon. The
Egyptian Muslim Brothers are a friend of Hamas and therefore Iran, and
Egypt ceasing to be a US client state can decisively change the
regional balance of power, in favor of Iran, against the empire.

A change in the regional balance of power is what's needed to end the
occupation of Iraq as well as that of Palestine.

<http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL29236002.html>
Gaddafi says Arabs should not alienate Iran
Sat 29 Mar 2008, 14:22 GMT

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

DAMASCUS, March 29 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi urged
fellow Arab leaders on Saturday to improve ties with non-Arab Iran,
saying it was not in their interest to antagonise the Islamic
republic.

"You have no escape from Iran. It is a neighbour and Muslim brother
and it is not in your interest to be its enemy. We have no interest at
all in turning Iran against us," Gaddafi told an Arab summit meeting
in Damascus.

A strengthening alliance between host Syria and Iran have deepened
divisions in the run up to the summit, which is being attended by
Iran's foreign minister but shunned by pro-U.S. Arab leaders,
including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Tensions have also heightened in the region over Iran's nuclear row
with the West and Tehran's alleged interference in Iraq and its
backing of Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah group in its standoff with the
pro-Western Lebanese government.

Gaddafi said Iran and the Arab world had historic relations that could
not be ignored, with a sizeable Iranian minority in Gulf Arab
countries.

He said the United Arab Emirates should seek international arbitration
to solve a dispute with Iran over three Gulf islands which Tehran
controls but are claimed by the UAE.

"Solve the issue peacefully," Gaddafi said. "Are these islands the
only thing we have lost? Arab dignity, Arab future and past have been
lost."

President George W. Bush tried to shore up Gulf Arab support against
Iran during a visit to the region in January. But Gulf states, which
share a strategic waterway crucial to world oil flows with Iran,
expressed little public backing to Bush's call.

Gaddafi said it was important for the summit to convene in Damascus
despite a regional rift, adding that Arabs have failed to produce a
meaningful union after decades of meetings.

"We are at crossroads. The Turks have their country, the Persians have
Iran, the Arabs cannot prove their worth because they do not have a
(unified) Arab state."

Without a union, Gaddafi predicted Arab countries to turn into
"spheres of influence, protectorates ..."

"The only thing that gathers us is this (summit) hall."

(Editing by Samia Nakhoul)



-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>