In the early morning of the first day of the aggression against Iraq, Dennis Ross, director of the Washington Institution for Near East Policy, wrote: “While many European leaders remained aloof from support for the war on Iraq, many weeks ago the Arab leaders began to acclimatize themselves to the new situation. They not only ceased any attempt to prevent the war but they began to show signs that they did not want to be on the side of any opposition to the United States in the region.”
Ross goes on to say: “For example, think of the official Egyptian information channels which still assure us that Saddam is responsible for the present dispute. On his visit to Berlin, President Hosni Mubarak confirmed to his hosts that the time had come to put an end to the dispute and to change Saddam.”
There is not enough space to list the glorious deeds of some of the Arab organizations which opened their land and air space, including their coastal areas, to the British and American forces.
Iran, however, has refused to provide such access.
Even Iran, which in its war with Iraq suffered more than any Arab country refused to open its air space. Belgium, Germany and Turkey refused permission for American forces to use their territories to embark on an unjust and unfair war against Iraq, despite the millions of dollars they were offered and in spite of the pressure, incentives, threats and promises.
In other words, at the most decisive and difficult moment, some Arab leaders deserted a sister Arab country, while some neighboring countries supported it, and Western countries without any historical, linguistic or cultural ties to the Iraqi people did likewise.
What does it mean to talk about Arab solidarity? What do all these meetings, resolutions and final communiqués mean? Why the pretense of a deep concern for the Arabs and Arabism?
The masks have come off, and we are confronted with the painful historical reality that this aggression on the people, land, skies and wealth of Iraq would not have been possible if the Arab countries had barred their facilities to the invader. This is what President Bashar Al-Assad asked the Arab countries to do at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit.
These Arab countries must bear responsibility for this aggression along with the United States and Britain.
The Arab peoples are weary of the use of meaningless phrases. The time has come for all of us to call a spade a spade. Arabs understand the difference between truth and fiction very well: They see, hear and read. And they know that they are paying a high price because their leaders have abandoned them.
Their leaders have left the Arabs to fend for themselves, having ruined their standing and honor among nations. It is no wonder that the world does not respect the Arabs.
Most Arab leaders do not respect their people and the peoples do not believe the words of their leaders. The leaders believe that they are deceiving their people, but the people are not deceived. The people respect only leaders who are truthful with their people, even if they disagree with them. All this is in contradiction to the basic principles of our life and the principles of Islam. Allah told the Muslims in the Qur’an: “Oh you who believe! Why do you say what you do not do? It is most hateful to Allah to say what you do not do.”
When the bombs started to fall, I was watching from New York via satellite. I saw correspondents mobilized like combatants. All were happy to talk about smart weapons and the achievement of US technology. The deserts and capitals of the Arab countries are deemed to be lawful targets for this technology.
The battlefield appeared to me the launching pad of an army of aliens. It was as if an Atari computer game was being created, directed and played in a land of people without will and without power of decision. But in the intense blackness of the moment, there was no doubt that the whole of the Arab people were poised for change. Truthfulness with ourselves and others was not a luxury but an absolute necessity, from which there was no escape.
Another certainty is that the time has come to put an end to the situation that pervades in the nation, and which the Arab media has regrettably done much to spread.
The people of the world are raising their voices against everything they disagree with, even if in so doing they risk being destroyed by the most fearful power on earth. A new beginning will be a return to the basic principles of life, the most important among them truthfulness and courage.
(The writer is director of External Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Syria.)
Arab News Opinion 23 March 2003
