West Asian states caught between popular demands and empire

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Israel and the Anglo-American war on Iraq

Turkey and the Anglo-American war on Iraq

Iraqi Buildup Near Kuwait Border: World Tribune, Tuesday 30 July 2002. Kuwaiti officials said the plan warns that the sheikdom can expect to be the first target of an Iraqi attack either prior to or during any U.S. military campaign to topple the regime of President Saddam Hussein. The Kuwaiti plan cited the Iraqi military buildup near the Kuwaiti border.
An unacceptable helplessness: By Edward Said, Al-Ahram Weekly, 16-22 January 2003. A generalised indifference (which may conceal great over-all fear, ignorance and apprehension) has greeted the administration’s war-mongering and its strangely ineffective response to the challenge forced on it recently by North Korea.
Excerpt From Iraq Report: By Guy Dinmore, Financial Times 18 February 2003. SCIRI was set up in 1982 to increase Iranian control over Shiite opposition groups in Iraq and the Persian Gulf states. Its leader, Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim, was the late Ayatollah Khomeini’s choice to head an Islamic Republic of Iraq.
Jordan Will Not Be Launching Pad For Strike On Iraq: Southnews, 24 February 2003. Jordan will not let any part of its territory be used as a staging point for a United States-led attack on neighbouring Iraq. We are very concerned with a war. We are trying to avoid the war in coordination with NAM, the Arab League and other international fora.
Statement of the XIII Non-Aligned Movement summit concerning Iraq: XIII Conference of heads of state or government of the Non-Aligned Movment, Kuala Lumpur, 20-25 February 2003. We believe that war against Iraq will be a destabilising factor for the whole region, and that it would have far reaching political, economic and humanitarian consequences for all countries of the world, particularly the States in the region.
Arabs Oppose Iraq Attack, Won’at Participate in War: Southnews, 2 March 2003. At Sharm el-Sheikh, Arab leaders said they opposed an attack on Iraq as a threat against Arab national security, and said their countries would not participate in any war. The crisis over Iraqᰱs alleged weapons of mass destruction should be resolved peacefully under the U.N..
US troops seen at key Saudi airport: Southnews, 7 March 2003. Hundreds of American troops have taken control of a civilian airport in Saudi Arabia, close to the border with Iraq. The move—which has not been officially confirmed—calls into question the kingdom’s public statements that it will not facilitate a military strike against Iraq.
Collateral damage from an illeigal war: Yemen: On which side?: By François Burgat, Le Monde diplomatique, April 2003. Yemen is preparing for a general election this month. Because it has been sapped by economic austerity and the concessions it has had to make to its partner, the U.S., in the fight against terrorism, the ruling regime is adopting an authoritarian stance to counter the Islamist opposition, and overturning a longstanding alliance.
Arabs and Iraq’s resistance: An Arab press review, Daily Star, 3 April 2003. Syria is not overly alarmed by the bellicose rhetoric the administration of George W. Bush has been directing at it, and won’t be cowed into abandoning its vociferous opposition to the American invasion of its eastern neighbor.
Reader Says Iran is not Assisting the U.S. Attack on Iraq: Dialog from the Emperor’ Clothes list, 8 April 2003. Iran is not supporting the US attack. Revolutionary Iran has always been a victim of the U.S. Islamist government is split between the moderate reformers around President Mohammad Khatami and the radical mullahs around Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but it is the mullahs who control the army and foreign policy.
Jordanian Govt Denies Pipeline Talks With Israel: By Mohammed Alkhereiji, Arab News War Correspondent, Al-Jazeerah, 11 April 2003. The Jordanian government denied yesterday it had approached Israel to discuss the possible reopening of a trans-Jordan pipeline from Iraq to Israel. The flow of Iraqi oil to Haifa stopped in 1948 with the end of the British mandate and the start of the occupation of Palestine.