GCC+2 and Iraq:
There is talk in the Arab media about a new 6+2 conservative alliance in the Middle East. This includes the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plus Egypt and Jordan. Overseeing this group of 6 will be number 7, Washington. Some officials at the ministerial level in the GCC have denied that such an alliance exists, but the recent meeting in Cairo with Secretary Rice has been noted in the press as an indication that Washington is pushing for an alliance that would be anti-Iranian, anti-Syrian, anti-Hizballah, anti-Hamas, and presumably anti-AlQaeda as well. But perhaps not anti-North Korean, not yet.
Some Islamist political groups in the GCC and in Egypt, and the remnants of the old Secular pan-Arabists, have cautioned of such a Western-dominated alliance. This is reminiscent of the old CENTO (Baghdad Pact) that stretched from Pakistan through Iran to Iraq and Turkey and was rendered defunct after the Iraqi generals started their series of coups in 1958. Such a new alliance will most likely depend heavily on the financial resources of the GCC countries. It looks like the immediate emphasis for this group will be on Iraq, and perhaps the Palestinian-Israeli issue- the New democratic Middle East might be put on the agenda at a much later date, perhaps after the oil wells dry out. I have a suggestion here: perhaps they should start by discussing the crippling foreign debts of Iraq, especially the Arab debts, including the reparation payments?
Troubled Jordan:
Jordan has withdrawn her ambassador from Doha, apparently in protest over Qatar declining to vote for her candidate for UN Secretary General. Qatar is the sole Arab member of the Security Council for the current term. The Jordanians claim there had been an Arab consensus to vote for a Jordanian prince to succeed Kofi Annan, but the Qataris deny that they promised any such thing. Interesting, last time I checked Qatar was an independent country, free to vote for whomever she wanted to. Besides the South Korean who seems slated for the job is a man with much experience, and he would have won anyway.
Jordan has been at the center of several controversies in recent months, some of it of her own creation, and this is something quite uncharacteristic for Jordan, which has a very presentable pair of monarchs- in fact they are the most presentable of all the 20 Arab monarchs (yes they are 20 of them). Well, almost all because I have not seen Her Majesty the Queen of Morocco, and I know King Mohammed VI looks better than Abdullah II.
Perhaps a change of Foreign Minister is in order in Amman. Or is it just a case of national PMS- that is Post Menstrual Syndrome in case you need to look it up? After all, it has been about 80 years since the British took away part of the Palestinian desert (TransJordan), and made it into a Kingdom- at about the same time they patched Iraq together from various Ottoman provinces and handed it to the Sunni potentates and officers corps. I thought 80 years was past it, but perhaps nation- states have a different biological clock. Does that explain the situation in Iraq as well? Does this mean Washingtom chose the wrong year to get rid of the Ba'athist regime?
Oh Oh, Them Cartoons, Again:
A Norwegian media outlet, TV2, has broadcast a documentary Monday (Oct 2) that includes the controversial Danish cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed. Alarabiya TV reports that all Norwegian embassies were forewarned to allow for security precautions. Keep your eyes open for the new snowball.
Cheers
Mohammed
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