18 April 2012 By
Tariq Alhomayed For more than seven
years we have warned of the danger of Iranian
infiltration in the region, and Tehran penetrating our
states, repeating that Iran is not a "friendly" state,
but rather an occupier of Arab lands. Many became
jaded with these warnings, even believing they were an
exaggeration, but today, after the Iranian President's
visit to the occupied Emirati island of Abu Musa, such
people have started to panic and have finally become
aware of the danger of Iran! However, is fear alone
enough, particularly at the political level? The
answer is no. Iran is active in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen
and Bahrain, and today it is supporting the tyrant of
Damascus Bashar al-Assad, whose troops have so far
killed more than 10,000 Syrians. In addition to all
this, here is President Ahmadinejad daring to visit
the occupied Emirati island of Abu Musa, as the first
Iranian president to do so since Iran occupied the
islands. The timing of this visit has clear and
blatant implications, as it comes before the start of
negotiations with the international community in
Turkey, surrounding the Iranian nuclear file. The
timing also coincides with UN-Arab League peace envoy
Kofi Annan's visit to Iran. This means that
Ahmadinejad is effectively saying that Iran will
negotiate using our region as play cards, rather than
what Tehran can offer the international community with
regards to the nuclear issue, i.e. Iran's trump cards
will be its interference in our region! Iran does all
that, and Ahmadinejad dares to visit the occupied
Emirati island of Abu Musa, but what about us, the
Arabs? Where are we in relation to all that is going
on? The true and honest
answer, which of course is our duty to point out, is
that we, as Arabs, are content with meeting room
discussions and issuing statements, printing newspaper
pages and airing news broadcasts, whilst on the ground
there is no effective mobility. All we are doing is a
series of half steps. The Gulf initiative succeeded in
Yemen, but the subsequent Iranian mobilization on the
ground there was very fast and did not encounter any
opposition. We sent the Peninsula Shield forces to
Bahrain, but the Iranian hand continues to interfere
there, and it is suffice here to consider the frenetic
campaign against the Bahrain Grand Prix. Nuri al-Maliki
cranes his neck into our affairs, and violates the
sanctity of Syrian blood, and the only punishment we
give in return is to receive Tariq al-Hashemi!
President Ahmadinejad visits Abu Musa and we confine
ourselves to statements of condemnation. Meanwhile
Tehran openly supports al-Assad with men and arms,
whilst we are confused as to who is leading the
efforts in Syria, and who will provide the first step.
We have not seen a genuine Gulf effort towards China
and Russia, while Walid Moallem has flown to Moscow
and Beijing. Today we should call
for a new Gulf-Arab effort to save the Syrian people
and restrict the Iranian hand there. We must use all
our trump cards, of which there are many, to launch a
Gulf-Arab diplomatic effort, with the participation of
Turkey of course; an effort similar to the phase prior
to the liberation of Kuwait. There are two main
objectives: The first diplomatic, the other to support
the Syrian rebels and the Free Syrian Army. Al-Assad
continues to bomb cities and kill Syrians, and he is
exploiting Annan's ceasefire to arrest the greatest
amount possible of peaceful Syrian activists.
Meanwhile, we await the outcomes of Annan's efforts,
which are doomed to the same fate as his efforts in
Rwanda! Thus, the question is:
If we don't mobilize when Ahmadinejad visits the
occupied Emirati island of Abu Musa, then when will we
mobilize? Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq
Al-Awsat, the youngest person to be appointed that
position. He holds a BA degree in Media studies from
King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, and has also
completed his Introductory courses towards a Master's
degree from George Washington University in Washington
D.C. He is based in London.
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