Doaa El-Bey and Rasha Saad conduct assessments on Egypt's parliamentary elections and the WikiLeaks embarrassment Arab pundits say US government memos uploaded in WikiLeaks is a Washington diplomatic scandal. Tariq Al-Homayed explains that it is a scandal in the sense of the immense failure on the part of the US to maintain the confidentiality of its meetings. In the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Homayed added that it is a scandal in the sense of the mentality that drives US diplomacy, especially considering what the memos revealed about American diplomats spying on their counterparts in the United Nations. The question, according to Al-Homayed, is what impact will this have on the diplomatic situation and international relations. Who, out of all the politicians in the world, can from now on trust American diplomats, knowing that their national security might be at risk? Al-Homayed, however, warns that we must be mindful here. "We cannot say that everything revealed in the US government cables can be considered fact, as reports are sometimes taken out of context," Al-Homayed maintains. "Some of the cables were merely feedback and analysis, and others only put forward points of view, rather than concrete policies. Negotiations between state representatives are usually characterised by such frank openness, especially when behind closed doors, before any influential political decisions are made," Al-Homayed wrote. In the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Abdel-Bari Atwan commented on the documents claiming Saudi incitement for the US to attack Iran. The US State Department documents uploaded on the WikiLeaks website suggested that Saudi King Abdullah officially asked the United States to launch a military attack on Iran to destroy its nuclear installations. Despite denials by Saudi officials, Atwan wrote that it seems we must expect a huge crisis in Saudi- Iranian relations in the coming days "which might be disastrous for the region." Atwan wondered if the Saudi king really pondered the possible consequences of the step he is advocating "especially for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. Quite possibly a merciless war could break out, with Iran bombarding the cities of the kingdom and the other Gulf countries with missiles. A sectarian clash between Shia and Sunnis might ensue, or a nationalist clash between Arabs and Persians." Atwan wrote that Iran is unlikely to be happy with the documents' contents concerning the incitement to attack it and no one knows what its reaction will be. It is certain, however, Atwan added, that it will cause enormous tension with the Gulf countries and in particular Saudi Arabia. "The United States, which destroyed Iraq and handed it over as easy prey to Iran after sowing in its fertile soil the seeds of sectarian sedition, wants to widen the circle of this sedition and transfer it to the Arab countries so as to undermine the region's stability and drown it in merciless wars," Atwan wrote. Atwan points out that it is incumbent on us to draw attention to one point: the danger of Arab countries getting dragged into US plans for the region and getting embroiled in secret strategic negotiations. "The US does not respect its allies and considers them tools in its imperialist plans. It deliberately exposes them after embroiling them in stands which undermine their credibility and their countries' stability. The publication of the current documents and before that the human rights violations in Iraq at the hands of Al-Maliki's government are the most prominent examples of this," Atwan maintained. In the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Hossam Eitani wrote that the WikiLeaks documents were reminiscent of Donald Rumsfeld's "the known unknown". Eitani explained that the content of much information in the leaked documents is not new but that the shock comes as these classified documents are published. Eitani also pointed out that it also came as a shock that a state like the US which spends billions of dollars annually cannot protect thousands of documents some of which are confidential. Eitani also pointed out that some of the documents reveal intensity and depth of US deliberations on Iranian affairs including the Iranian nuclear file, the health of its supreme leader, the viewpoints of Arab leaders towards its policies and the activities of its Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon and Iraq. "There is hardly any document between the US and foreign diplomats and leaders without Iran mentioned. This means that Washington sees in Iran the only party with an integrated and competitive agenda that can challenge the US in the region. This shows that the Arab world, with its people, leadership and issues, is absent from the American mind," Eitani wrote. In its editorial, the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh wrote that the Arab countries are unlikely to give these leaked documents deep analysis or study but will either see them as untrue or as meaningless accusations. The editorial reminded readers that thousands of documents released by Britain, which as a superpower in the previous centuries occupied many parts of the Arab world, tackle Arab political, economic and social life, then met the same fate. In the Lebanese daily Assafir Satei Noureddin wrote that the US does not have secrets but scandals that afflict all those who are allies or who deal with it. In 'The banquet of secrets' Noureddin wrote that the around 250,000 leaked US embassy cables show that the US "does not have any diplomacy or principles but prejudgments that are based on ignorance and arrogance. "The leaked cables are a scandal in the real sense of the word that puts both US officials and their allies and friends in embarrassing situations," Noureddin wrote.
