Daily Archives: May 7, 2007

Iran, Iraq, Islamofascists, War on Terror

Iran and Saudia Arabia vie to control terrorists

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The New York Post’s Peter Brooks explains that our friends the Saudis are competing with Iran to control terrorist organizations in the Middle East yet there is an up side:

* In Lebanon, Saudi Arabia backs the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Iran backs Shia Hezbollah, which has sought to topple the democratically elected government since the end of the war with Israel last summer.

* In the Palestinian territories, both Iran and Saudi Arabia are courting Hamas. While Tehran has long supported Hamas against Israel, Riyadh cut in on Hamas’ dance card in February by brokering a political agreement between Hamas and Fatah at Mecca.

* The Saudis recently stepped in to help ink a peace deal between Sudan and neighboring Chad. They won points for preserving peace within Sunni Islam – but also likely hoped to get Khartoum to stop Iran’s funding of the conversion of young Sunni Sudanese to Shiism.

But Iraq is the major flashpoint. The Iranian regime seeks two basic things there: 1) An ignominious defeat for America, leading to a U.S. withdrawal – from the region, if possible; and 2) The establishment of a Shia-dominated, pro-Iran Iraqi government.
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The Saudis, by contrast, largely back their fellow Sunnis in Iraq – with the important exception of al Qaeda and the insurgents. Above all else, they want to prevent Iraq from falling under Tehran’s sway. One big fear is that sectarian strife could flow over Iraq’s borders into Saudi Arabia – stirring up trouble with Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority.

Riyadh has been none too pleased with U.S. progress in Iraq; recently, it’s started taking matters quietly into its own hands. Covert Saudi support has been flowing to places like Anbar, where Sunni tribal forces are being “re-empowered.”

Happily, though, that support is bolstering the overall U.S. effort – for the Sunnis of Anbar have been striking back at the strong (and overwhelmingly foreign) al Qaeda presence in the province, rather than fighting Iraqi Shiites.

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Political wind, Turkey

Islamism in Turkey stalled

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After hundreds of thousands took to Istanbul’s streets in protest and the military threatened a coup, a high court in Turkey delayed the Islamists’ plan to install their party’s founder as President. Islamists already hold a wide majority in Turkey’s Parliament yet risk continued exclusion from the European Union. United Press International editor Claude Salhani provides and update and explains what is at stake in commentary this morning in the Washington Times:

Turkey’s latest crisis began when Mr. Erdogan’s Islamic AKP — Justice and Development Party — set its eyes on the presidency. The position is largely ceremonial but still carries a certain amount of clout. The Turkish president, who serves a seven-year term, can block laws and official appointments. The president nominates the judges of the Constitutional Court and military advocates.

Winning the presidency would have consolidated the AKP’s power, but also set a precedent in the modern Turkish republic by mixing politics and religion.
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Mr. Gul, who is also co-founder of the ruling moderate AKP, however, failed to win the necessary two-thirds majority of the Parliament, or 367 votes in the first round of voting. But a victory by Mr. Gul in a third round was a certain shoo-in, given that he would only need a simple majority to win.

Then there were massive demonstrations in the Turkish capital of Ankara and in its commercial center, Istanbul, with more than 1 million people taking to the streets in protest. And perhaps of greater importance was the not-so-thinly veiled threat from the country’s military — traditional guardians of the Kemalist secularist notion — of having the armed forces intervene.
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Turkish politicians know better than to tempt their military. Turkey’s generals have intervened four times in the last 40 years to protect the secularist Kemalist tenet. Three coups d’etat — in 1960, 1971 and 1980 — brought the military out of their barracks and the politicians into line. The military’s latest incursion into the country’s politics was no later than in 1997, when they forced the resignation of Necmettin Erbakan, the head of government and leader of an Islamic party.

As could be expected, the EU has reacted with alarm to threats by Turkey’s military forces. A military coup at Europe’s doorstep is indeed a frightening prospect. But then again, so is an Islamist state for the vast majority of Europeans.

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