[Texgreen] Arab league warns of US attack

[Roger Baker]

[Could the Bush administration really be as inept as they appear to =20
be, or do they actually want the whole Mideast to go up in flames? =20
They lie about everything, including their real goals and motives, so =20=

its hard to tell. The New York Times and Washington Post have =20
recently been serving up a constant stream of how demented and =20
manipulative this administration really is. It defies belief. -- Roger]



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middleeast/2007/January/middleeast_January264.xml&section=3Dmiddleeast>

Arab League's Moussa warns US on Iran attack
(Reuters)

25 January 2007


DAVOS, Switzerland - There is a 50/50 chance the United States will
attack Iran and any such strike would risk spreading sectarian
violence through the Middle East, Arab League Secretary General Amr
Moussa said on Wednesday.

=93It=92s a 50/50 proposition, and we hope that it won=92t happen.
Attacking Iran would be counterproductive,=94 Moussa told Reuters at
the World Economic Forum.

US President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address on
Tuesday, spoke of an =93escalating danger=94 from Shia extremists, many
taking direction from Iran. Bush called them just as dangerous to the
United States as Al Qaeda.

Iran and the United States are also at loggerheads over a nuclear
program that Washington says is to make bombs. Tehran denies this.
The United States favors diplomacy to resolve the standoff, but has
not ruled out strikes if that fails.

Asked about Moussa=92s comments, US State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack reiterated that all options remained on the table but he
said the United States was working in a =94cooperative fashion=94 with
its allies in the Gulf over Iran.

=94The president has always said =92You never take any option off the
table,=92 but I think we=92re being quite transparent in the ways that
we=92re seeking to deal with the various threats posed by Iran, really
to the region,=94 McCormack told reporters in Washington.

Moussa did not go into details of how he assessed the likelihood of a
US attack.

Asked about Bush=92s remark on Shia extremists, Moussa said, =93I would
agree that any kind of extremism, in thoughts or in policies or harsh
conservatives, any kind are very dangerous.=94

But he stopped short of blaming Iran. =93It would not be appropriate=94
to say whether Iran is responsible for destabilizing Iraq through
support of extremists, he said.

Moussa said the United States needs to move from use of military
force towards dialogue, both to resolve the violence in Iraq and to
reduce US-Iranian tensions. He added that he favored proposals for
talks with Iran and Syria.

=93If there were to be a war, other genies will get out of the bottle.
You cannot imagine the impact on the Gulf countries, on the
Mediterranean,=94 Moussa said.
Spillover

His concern over a looming US-Iran confrontation was shared by
business leaders and political commentators at an opening session on
the Middle East at the Forum, an annual gathering of the world=92s rich
and powerful.

Some said it would risk sectarian divisions spilling over to Lebanon,
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. It would also undermine three years of
strong regional economic growth seen as important for stabilizing the
region.

One panelist said a serious danger would be any crash in the crude
oil price, engineered by Saudi Arabia, to squeeze Iran=92s finances as
a way to bring the country to its knees.

As a major crude producer, Iran relies heavily on oil revenues. These
have soared since crude prices roughly doubled in the past three
years, almost reaching $80 a barrel last summer before retreating to
the mid $50s currently.

Moussa also said that Bush=92s plan to build up troops in Iraq and
pursue a military solution will not resolve sectarian clashes that
are ripping the country apart, he said.

=93Iraq is broken,=94 Moussa said.

He proposed a diplomatic solution, advocating a United Nations=92
Security Council resolution that Iraq should not be partitioned, an
agreement on reconciliation and amendment to its constitution.

Moussa also threw his support behind renewal of long-suspended
Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, saying time is running out to
make real progress. The United States, European Union, United
Nations, and Russia, known as the Quartet, are due to hold talks in
February.

=93What we need is a process of peace, but a viable process of peace
not just photo opportunity,=94 he said.

Concrete issues, such as the borders for a Palestinian state, must be
on the table, not merely general guidelines to lay the groundwork for
peace, he said.

=93I believe very firmly, I believe very strongly that if we don=92t do
something in 2007, it will be very difficult to do something later
on,=94 Moussa said.