Saudi Arabia to forgive 80% Iraq debt; US leads

"Saudi Arabia has agreed to forgive 80 percent of the more than $15 billion that Iraq owes the kingdom, Iraqi and Saudi officials said yesterday, a major step given Saudi reluctance to provide financial assistance to the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.
. . . The Bush administration has been working for months to persuade other governments to follow the U.S. lead and write off all of their shares of Iraq's debts, which Jabr said total $140 billion. Most of those loans date to Iraq's war with Iran from 1980 to 1988, when the United States, Saudi Arabia and other governments saw Iraq as a buffer against Iran.
Iraq also owes $199 billion in compensation for the Persian Gulf War that followed Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, analysts said."
. . . After a U.N.-brokered cease-fire ended the war with Iran, Iraq was unable to win debt relief from key allies, including Sunni countries in the Gulf and Russia, its primary weapons supplier. That heightened economic tensions that contributed to Iraq's decision to invade oil-rich Kuwait in 1990."

source
Mufson, Steven & Wright, Robin. (The Washington Post). In a Major Step, Saudi Arabia Agrees to Write Off 80 Percent of Iraqi Debt. April 18, 2007.

posted: sunday, april 22, 2007, 2:33 AM ET

tags: iraq saudi arabia debt

Is there an anti-Shiite conspiracy in the Middle East?

"Newspapers are replete with assertions, some little more than incendiary rumors, of Shiite aggressiveness.
. . . [Lebanese] watched the rise of sectarian identity, railed against it, blamed the United States and others for inflaming it, then were often helpless to stop the descent into bloodshed.
. . . Over centuries, differences in ritual, jurisprudence and theology evolved, some of them slight. But the Shiite community . . . is shaped far more today by the underprivileged status it has often endured in an Arab world that is predominantly Sunni.
. . . [A] sense of Western manipulation is often voiced by Shiite clerics and activists, who say the United States incites sectarianism as a way of blunting Iran's influence. In recent years, some of the most provocative comments have come from America's allies in the region: Egypt's president questioned Shiites' loyalty to their countries, Jordan's king warned of a coming Shiite crescent from Iran to Lebanon, and last month King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia denounced what he called Shiite proselytizing."

source
Shadid, Anthony. (The Washington Post). Across Arab World, a Widening Rift. February 12, 2007.

posted: tuesday, february 13, 2007, 7:42 PM ET

tags: iraq conspiracy shiite middle east iran america

Some Shiite-Sunni tension in U.S. also

"Escalating tensions between Sunnis and Shiites across the Middle East are rippling through some American Muslim communities. . . . Political splits between those for and against the American invasion of Iraq fuel some of the animosity, but it is also a fight among Muslims about who represents Islam.
. . . Some students and experts on sectarianism also attribute the fissure to the significant growth in the Muslim American population over the past few decades.
Before, most major cities had only one mosque and everyone was forced to get along. Now, some Muslim communities are so large that the majority Sunnis and minority Shiites maintain their own mosques, schools and social clubs.
. . . 'I don’t want Shiite students to feel alienated,' said Nura Sediqe, the president of the Ann Arbor student group. 'But the dominant group never sees as much of a problem as the minority.'
. . . Not all campuses have been affected. Some, like Georgetown University and Cornell University, were considered oases of tolerance."

source
MacFarquhar, Neil. (The New York Times). February 4, 2007. Iraq’s Shadow Widens Sunni-Shiite Split in U.S.

posted: tuesday, february 6, 2007, 9:27 AM ET

tags: iraq shiite sunni

America should help Hezbollah be part of Lebanese government

"Last month the White House issued an official statement citing 'attempts by Syria, Iran, and their allies within Lebanon to foment instability and violence' and insisting the United States would 'continue its efforts with allied nations and democratic forces in Lebanon to resist these efforts.' In other words, we’re still trying to rile Lebanese sentiment as a wedge against our enemies in the region.
A far more genuine American commitment to Lebanon would focus on helping the parties to come up with a reasonable formula to redress the under-representation of Shiites in the power structure while getting greater government control over Hezbollah’s war-making capacity.
Make no mistake: Hezbollah is no friend to America. As a former United States intelligence officer, I know there are a few accounts yet to be settled with that organization. But Washington will never achieve its objectives in the Middle East — including its obligation to ensure Israel’s long-term security — unless it puts emotions aside and deals realistically with facts on the ground. Like it or not, Hezbollah is one of those facts. A less-than-pliable but strong government in Lebanon would be far preferable to no real government at all, which is what we have now."

Op-ed by Robert Grenier, former director of the CIA's counterintelligence center.

source
The New York Times. If You Love Lebanon, Set It Free. December 17, 2006.

song: There's no ceasefire in Lebanon, baby

posted: tuesday, december 19, 2006, 11:08 AM ET

lebanon manipulation America cia song