Dina Ezzat follows a sequence of disturbing news from the eastern part of the region "Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Israel and the Arab world are the conflicting parties" that need a way out. This was how Abdel-Rahman Al-Rashed, columnist in the daily London-based and Saudi-financed Asharq Al-Awsat summarised the current situation in the Arab world. Al-Rashed could not have been more accurate -- except that he missed an equally troubled party: Iran. Day in, day out, the Arab press took their banner headlines from these countries, predominantly Syria, over the alleged involvement of Damascus in the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri and the consequences thereof. However, the Syria story produced more column inches than commentary, demonstrating little sympathy with this Arab country. The timid show of solidarity with Syria was carefully demonstrated by the wording of the headlines that portrayed Syria as a victim of the evil West and which aimed to distinguish between the wrong-doings of the regime and the Syrian people. But for the Syrian-run press, that was an unfortunate show of lack of sympathy. "Arabs, and the official and unofficial Arab media, have gone too far in downgrading their reaction. It seems that Arabs have fallen into a deep coma or had suffered a heart attack," read the Sunday editorial of the Syrian daily Al-Thawra. When news is bad from Syria, it cannot be too good for Lebanon which, according to As-Safir 's prominent commentator Talal Salman, seems to be moving into a phase of internationalisation. Lebanon would "move from the patronage of Syria with all its gross miscalculations to an international patronage that has the power to cover up for its mistakes and even persuade the country it is controlling that it is a free nation that makes its own decisions." It was also a week of confusing signs from Iraq. There were signs of possible but remote national accord prompted by the visit of Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa to Iraq, which was described by the Lebanese daily An-Nahar 's commentator Jihad Azzain as a serious and potentially successful diplomatic endeavour to bring stability, even if later rather than sooner, to the devastated country. But there were also unmistakable signs of continued ethnic and religious-based feuds over which the US seems to have zero control, to the extent that the US, according to Nizar Al-Samaraei's analysis in the daily Iraqi Az- Zaman, is considering closer cooperation with Tehran on Iraq to use Iranian influence in alienating the Shias from providing Sunnis any ammunition in their fight against the US occupation. Obviously, the comment by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressing a desire to "wipe Israel off the map" produced headlines and commentaries throughout the week by a wide range of Arab writers who for the most part agreed that Ahmadinejad had offered Israel a free and handsome public relations service out of nowhere. Some of those thought that the statement was simply silly and of no use. In his daily column in Asharq Al-Awsat, the ultra-pro-US Kuwaiti commentator Ahmed Al-Robai argued, "had Israel paid millions, it would not have achieved what it got out of the statements of the Iranian president. They were used by the Israelis in a very smart way to put Iran in a corner... Israel is an aggressive and brutal state but it is also a very lucky state due to the free-of- charge service it gets from its enemies." Like the vast majority of commentators, Al-Robai predicted that the statements by Ahmadinejad would mean more disturbing developments in the eastern part of the region that, he noted in his daily column in Asharq Al-Awsat, includes tense relations between Iran and its neighbouring Arab states over what the Gulf should be called: Arab Gulf or Persian Gulf. Some commentators had an alternative reading. Iran, they argued, is asserting itself through these statements as a serious power that should not be taken lightly. In a front-page news analysis in the prestigious London- based daily Al-Hayat, Ghassan Charbale argued that these statements constitute "a free gift for Israel" and indicate "a call by Iran to all neighbouring states to acknowledge it as a regional power". Meanwhile, capturing the headlines of the Arab affairs pages were the disturbing developments in the Palestinian territories, including a story in Al-Hayat regarding new rules imposed by the occupation to force wanted Palestinians to surrender in white pants to make sure they are carrying no explosive belts. News from and analysis of the western part of the region were limited to the daily papers of the Maghreb countries and the occasional short story about the human rights movement in Tunisia, the fight against illegal immigration in Morocco, the political confrontation between regime and foes in Algeria and Mauritania and sporadic news on the growing political profile of Seif Al-Islam Al-Qaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader. Even the Egyptian scene, with its upcoming legislative elections and the role of Gamal Mubarak, the son of the president, in these elections, provided few interesting stories in the Arab press. The civil unrest in Sudan and Somalia also paled when compared with the hot wind blowing from the east.
