‘100 years on Arabs in dire straits’

Unity shattered ... brother kills brother

“THE state of deterioration which we currently see in the Arab world is certainly not incidental,” columnist, former Minister of Information and former Chairman of Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“This state of deterioration continues after one hundred years of the Grand Arab Revolution in 1916 against the then racist government of the Ottoman State which was persecuting the Arabs — not because they had committed any violations but just because they were Arabs.

“We still remember the statement made one hundred years ago by the then well-known Egyptian leader the late Saad Zaghloul who went on record for saying, ‘The Arabs are a zero and Egypt is also a zero and the total of these zeroes is equal to a big zero’.

“But what the Egyptian leader should have said at that time is, ‘the Arabs in one hundred years will become big personalities some of them constructive and others destructive, but the total of the two will be a big zero.

“From 1916 to 2016 some sincere Arab leaders have been working for the sake of the Arab unity and their strength, while others have been cheating their peoples, although at most times we saw them hoisting the banner of nationalism and the banner of Muslim unity but their deeds were otherwise.

“Because of this the Arabs at the moment are suffering from deterioration and are involved in internal conflicts. Take for example, Iraq at the moment. The Iraqis are against the Iraqis, to such an extent they kill each other, destroy each other’s homes and everyone is forcing the other to leave the homeland never to return again.

“The same is applicable to the Syrians, the Libyans, the Yemenis, the Lebanese, the Somalis, the Palestinians and so on to such an extent we venture to say the situations which currently prevail in several Arab countries are worse than those which prevailed during the period of the Islamic imperialism represented by both the Turks and the Iranian Safawi and even worse than the days of the Western imperialism represented by the British and the French imperialism.

“But the difference here between then (the imperialistic era) and now is that during that era, those who were involved in killing and executing the Arabs and destroying their homelands were strangers, but now the Arabs are killing each other in an era which can be called ‘enemies brothers’ era.

“However, those who were working for Arab unity, prevent the bloodshed, protect the nation’s wealth and territories during the past one hundred years were represented some Arab leaders such as King Abdulaziz Al-Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Shiite leaders of the Iraqi Revolution of 1920 in the Middle Euphrates just to help the then popular revolutions which had erupted in the Iraqi Sunni cities of Mosul, Tel Afar and Deir Al-Zour of Syria.

“Apart from the above, we refer to the leaders of the then Syrian Grand Revolution led by sincere leaders who belonged to the Druze, Shiite and Sunni sects — the revolution that erupted when the leaders strongly turned down the then French project that was aimed at dividing Syria into small sectarian entities.

“We also refer to the former monarch of Egypt King Farouq who was insisting to protect the unity between Egypt and the Sudan, the former Libyan monarch King Mohammad Idrees Al-Sanousi who had unified the then Libyan three States, the former Syrian president Shukri Al-Quwatli who had surrendered his presidential post in favor of the then Egyptian president Jamal Abdul Nasser for the sake of unity between Egypt and Syria, the former Yemeni Crown Prince the Amir Mohammad Al-Bader who believed in the Arab unity who forced his father, the then King of Yemen to join the unity grouping between Egypt and Syria, the former president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahayan who unified the seven Arab Emirates and the former Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber AlAhmad whose brainchild is the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).”

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Al-Nisf

“The killing of one of the so-called ‘Hezbollah’ leaders, Mustafa Badreddine a few weeks ago in the heart of his stronghold — the area which is currently subjected to the influence of the Syrian regime on the periphery of Damascus — has actually raised many doubts about the circumstances surrounding his ‘murder’,” columnist Waleed wrote for Al-Qabas daily Tuesday.

“However, some people say Badreddine was killed in an attack on his command headquarters by one of the Syrian opposition parties, while some others believe he was killed by some people belonging to the Syrian ruling regime following his involvement in many terrorist crimes around the world topped by the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.

“Given the above, the ‘murder’ of the terrorist Badreddine who was on the wanted list around the world, has come within an attempt to close down the international judicial file which was pursuing Badreddine on charges of involvement in the assassination of the late Rafiq Al-Hariri.

“As a matter of fact, Badreddine was an inmate in Kuwait during the 1980s after he was convicted of several crimes committed by him and his corrupt coteries inside Kuwait including their involvement in bombing the country’s oil installations and some foreign embassies in the country during which many citizens lost their lives.

“Apart from the above, Badreddine, was also involved in bombing popular cafés in Kuwait in addition to an attack on the motorcade of HH the then Amir and the symbol of Kuwait the late Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad (we pray to Almighty Allah to bestow His mercy upon him) in addition to a series of explosions that Kuwait witnessed during that period.

“Likewise, Badreddine and former Hezbollah military leaders Imad Mughnieh were involved in hijacking the Kuwaiti aircraft Al-Jabriya, during which some innocent Kuwaitis were killed.

“Following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Badreddine took the opportunity and fled from the Kuwaiti prison to Iran, or may be the then Iraqi regime decided to hand him over to Tehran in a (PoWs) swap deal between Baghdad and Tehran during that time.”