Gulf states fear Shiite victory in Iraq

[Paco]

By Hassan al-Fekih - DUBAI

The likely prospect of a Shiite victory in this month's landmark Iraqi elections is making the oil-rich Gulf monarchies apprehensive, fearing Tehran's growing influence in the region.

...

"More important for the Iraqis is to get rid of sectarianism linked to fanaticism, so that the desired democracy can seek understanding and acceptance of the other," the Abu-Dhabi based centre said in an editorial on its website.

...

"I think that Iraq could represent a democratic model for the Arab-Muslim world which has experienced futile and utopic conflicts for 14 centuries," he said. (Sheikh Ali Salman)

 

[moghrabi]

By Hassan al-Fekih - DUBAI

The likely prospect of a Shiite victory in this month's landmark Iraqi elections is making the oil-rich Gulf monarchies apprehensive, fearing Tehran's growing influence in the region.

...

"More important for the Iraqis is to get rid of sectarianism linked to fanaticism, so that the desired democracy can seek understanding and acceptance of the other," the Abu-Dhabi based centre said in an editorial on its website.

...

"I think that Iraq could represent a democratic model for the Arab-Muslim world which has experienced futile and utopic conflicts for 14 centuries," he said. (Sheikh Ali Salman)

I think it is the US that is fearful of this happening. They do not like to see an Iranian-like government in Iraq. But there will be one and the US have to deal with the consequences.

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

Aren't you over-concluding here moghrabi?

 

[moghrabi]

Not at all. A Shiite majority will take power. This is apparent. Iran will have a hand in the political climate after that. The Nightmare for the US is to follow. You see, the US did not expect the isurgency to be run by the Sunnis. They expected the Shiites to misbehave and then the US will corner them. But the story on the ground turned different than what the US wanted. The insurgency is Sunni, the majority is Shiites who have been oppressed by Saddam.

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

But on what do you ground the claim that the US expected the Shiites and not the Sunnis to misbehave? Isn't Al Zarqawi a Sunni? The US leadership always said that there was a link with Al Qaida in Iraq (whether that is true is not the case here, just using it as an example), Al Qaida is compromised mostly out of Sunnis for what I know so from that line of thinking, wouldn't it be obvious the US government expected to receive the biggest problems from Sunni militants, also taking in consideration that Saddam Hussein was a Sunni and he apparently had a lot of support within the so-called Sunni Triangle? And isn't it logical that the US government expected a Shiite victory with the upcoming elections as the Shiites are a majority in Iraq, comprimising 60% of the entire population?

By the way, what is your opinion about the article Paco posted, moghrabi? Do you think that there are a lot of Gulf leaderships which really fear Shiites coming into power in Iraq with the following election, and thus the chance being there that Iran will get a lot of influence in Iraq?

 

[moghrabi]

Any fear by any Gulf states is the same fear the US is having. Look, let me put in layman's term. The Gulf states are all ruled by Sunni puppets put either by the US or the Brits. A Shiite government in Iraq (especially a Mullah one) will be a serious problem for all countries around. The Sunni do not want and do not like to have any Shiite influence in the area. The same with the US, it fear a Shiite uprising in the Gulf states and then they loose control.

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

OK, well that's a pretty clear answer. Thanks.

 

[moghrabi]

I hope that was clear.

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

Hi!

I think Bush made a mistake right off the hop.
Even if he was being insincere, he should of began negotiating with Arafat.
Even if insincere, Bush should of demanded that Sharon of Israel stop using American equipment and arms against Palestinians.

But he blew it.

I believe that this chaos happening now in Iraq was part of an overall plan. In order to conquer a country, yuh gotta divide it.
Yuh gotta have people fighting amongst themselves so that they are too busy to fight the occupation.
The US is really only interested in Northern Iraq. They will be moving all their troops up North after the sham elections.

The US used Kurdish folks from Northern Iraq as "Iraqi soldiers" when fighting in Mosul and Felujah or whatever.
This had to be deliberate strategy by the Americans.
I keep thinking that if Quebec separated from Canada and the Canadian government went and got a bunch of Newfoundlanders' to use as troops against Quebec .... would that not be the height of insults to the French culture here in Canada?

The US keeps saying that everything was a "mistake". Perhaps not?

Bush: I Would Accept Islamic Iraq
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3755850.stm

Calm

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

What is the relationship between the average Shiites and Sunnis in the street, moghrabi, not only in Iraq, but elsewhere in the Arab world? I do have to say that this question is far too complex I guess, and it also sounds that I'm assuming that you have the answer to all of this, but I thought, that you, as a Lebanese, might have some insight on it. Wouldn't it be a good idea if more people from the Arab world joined CC, taking in consideration that the Middle East and the situation in the ME is much spoken of here?

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

Hey! Rick van Opbergen

Probably half of Iraq would of joined this forum by now except they got no electricity.

Calm

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

Do you think Canada is so popular in Iraq? :wink: But seriously, I understand your sarcasm.

 

[moghrabi]

I can take you to some forums where you can chat with Arabs of all colors. They are polite and know what is really happening over there. The problem here is we see it as we are told on Fox or some other TV thing. There they have different opinion based on different experiences under the occupation.

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

Well before this, I used to visit arabia.com (chatrooms) for two years, and yes that was really interesting. However, at one point they changed it, and now Java is required to get in, and I'm just too lazy to acquire that :wink:

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

Hi! Rick van Opbergen

It must be pretty tense roaming around Mouse Land without Java installed.
http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_automatic.jsp

 

[moghrabi]

Lazy to install it. Come on Rick. How do you surf the net? With a surfing board? LOL.

If you require to install MSJava instead of Sun's Java. I can email it to you.

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

I thought you had to pay for Java. Anyway Paranoid, thanks for the link! And also thank you for the offer moghrabi!

 

[moghrabi]

Java is free. It used to come with Windows. Now Sun offers the Java engine but MS Java is still allowed to run till the end of 2007. I have MS Java. Some people prefer it to Sun's version. I can put a link for you to download.