What the Middle East thinks about the ISG report
As the President ponders the political fallout from the release of the Baker-Hamilton report, Passport takes a look at what is being said about it across the Middle East: An editorial at the Iraqi paper Az-Zaman proclaims that the Iraq Study Group has devised the first real American strategy for handling Iraq, but is generally unimpressed ...
As the President ponders the political fallout from the release of the Baker-Hamilton report, Passport takes a look at what is being said about it across the Middle East:
As the President ponders the political fallout from the release of the Baker-Hamilton report, Passport takes a look at what is being said about it across the Middle East:
An editorial at the Iraqi paper Az-Zaman proclaims that the Iraq Study Group has devised the first real American strategy for handling Iraq, but is generally unimpressed with the contents, particularly with the commission’s perceived failure to adequately define a U.S. “victory” in Iraq.
KurdishMedia flags the report’s warning that an overly independent Kurdistan would warrant a Turkish invasion, asking “Is Baker a Turk or an American“?
There’s no direct mention of Baker-Hamilton at Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency, but the mood there is generally hostile. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promises to “stand up to the bullying and greed of arrogant global powers,” and Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar believes the United States is continuing to spread discord in the region, “[i]nstead of compensating for its past mistakes and revising its strategies and policies.”
The Syrian Arab News Agency says that the Foreign Ministry considers the report “positive,” but its focus on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights suggests that the price for Syrian help may be high indeed.
As noted in today’s Morning Brief, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected any connection between the war in Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Meanwhile an analysis at the Jerusalem Post predicts that adopting the ISG recommendations would lead to a “Madrid redux,” referring to the 1991 multi-lateral peace conference that many on the Israeli right consider to be a greater failure than the subsequent Oslo Accords.
Lebanon’s Daily Star is hopeful. The editors see the report as an opportunity for Bush to “salvage his reputation.”
Overall, the Middle Eastern perspective on Baker-Hamilton looks typically bleak. For a round-up of what’s being said in the States, check out Slate’s “Reporting Failure” and “Iraq Study Group? BFD!“
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