By - Patrick Goodenough, International Editor , CNCNews
Russia’s military intervention in Georgia in the face of Western protests is being viewed by some in the Arab world as evidence of American weakness, with media commentators voicing barely-disguised delight at what they see as a defeat for Washington.
At the same time, some voices are cautioning the Islamic Middle East not to throw its lot behind Moscow as many of the region’s leading countries did at times during the Cold War.
Russia on Aug. 8 sent troops and tanks across its southern border after Georgia’s pro-Western government mounted an offensive against separatists in the Russian-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia, saying it was forced to act to protect its citizens and peacekeepers in South Ossetia, drove Georgian forces from the rebel province and then pressed into other parts of Georgian territory.
A European Union-brokered ceasefire is now in operation and Moscow on Monday claimed to have begun pulling back.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was Tuesday attending an emergency meeting of NATO’s North Atlantic Council, called at Washington’s request to discuss a response to the crisis. En route to Brussels, she said NATO must reaffirm membership process bids for both Georgian and fellow former Soviet republic Ukraine, despite strong Russian objections.
“We are also going to send the message that we are not going to allow Russia to draw a new line at those states that are not yet integrated into the transatlantic structures like Georgia and Ukraine,” she said. NATO was determined to deny the Russians the strategic objectives of weakening the Georgian state and undermine its democracy.
In the opinion of some in the Arab world, however, the crisis was a clear victory for Moscow – and some thought this was a good thing.
A Gulf News editor, Abdul-Hadi Al-Timimi, wrote in an op-ed Sunday that Russia’s willingness to use its military might to reassert its influence in the former Soviet space was “long overdue,” and “most urgently needed at a time when the U.S. and its allies are targeting two of the last few Russian allies in the Middle East: Iran and Syria."
The United Arab Emirates’ daily Khaleej Times in an editorial predicted that there would now be changes in the international order.
“America will remain the biggest economy and military, yet its diplomatic [authority] will continually trim till it finally rests at a more acceptable level to the rest of the world,” it said.
“From its handling of Iran to its desire to play a more effective role in the Middle East and world affairs, it is apparent that the new Russia is not prepared to be thrown around like a lightweight any more as it was after the end of Soviet Union,” the same paper opined Monday.
“The return of Russia portends a shift in the balance of political forces in the Middle East that for the moment at least appears to weaken the American and pro-Western side of the balance and to strengthen the Iranian side,” said Cairo’s Middle East Times in an editorial.
It noted that Russia supplies Iran with weapons, is completing its new nuclear reactor and “ensuring the U.N. sanctions are not too burdensome."
Some commentators saw an opportunity to criticize the U.S.
Saudi Arabia’s Arab Times in a Saturday editorial sought to put the blame for the crisis on what it called the “inept belligerence” of the Bush administration, and said the Western Europe was being drawn into a U.S. face-off with Moscow.
Qatar’s Gulf Times, meanwhile, scoffed at the American and British criticism of Russia’s actions in Georgia.
“One would think, in light of the Iraq debacle and the continuing disgrace of detention without charge, that these two world ‘powers’ would have been among the last to plant their flags in the shifting soil of moral high ground."
‘Back to the worst years of the Cold War'
Pundits also wondered what the Russia-Georgia war meant for small, U.S.-backed countries.
An editorial in Dubai’s Gulf News said the conflict “has shown that Washington will not always come to the rescue of its allies in their time of need.”
The son of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, said the crisis had sent a warning to other countries that rely on America and think that “closeness to the United States will allow them to do anything they want."
“It’s not so,” he said an interview with the Russian daily, Kommersant.
Gaddafi took issue with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s charge that parts of Georgia were “occupied” by Russia.
“How can you talk about occupation, when you are occupiers yourself? The Georgians along with the Americans occupy Iraq! And now they are trying to portray themselves as fighters for freedom and democracy.”
As the crisis unfolded, the U.S. flew 2,000 Georgian troops back home from Iraq, where they had constituted the third-largest foreign contingent in the U.S.-led coalition.
Gaddafi said the Arab world welcomed their pullout.
“All Arabs are mad at Georgia because it sent its troops to Iraq and took part in the occupation of that Arab land,” he said. “If it weren’t for Russia, Georgian forces would still be in Iraq."
Amid the pro-Russia sentiment, a warning came from the Middle East Times, which in an editorial Monday urged Arabs to think with their heads rather than their hearts.
“There is a potential danger of countries in the Arab world to take Russia’s re-entry into the global political scene as a major power broker as a signal to openly side with Moscow,” it said.
Rallying to the Russians would take Arabs “back to the worst years of the Cold War where the Arab world stagnated economically, forever indebted to the Soviets for arms and munitions that were always a step or two behind those of the West.”
Writing in the independent Arab daily Al Hayat, columnist and political analyst Raghida Dergham cautioned the Islamic world against a rush to embrace the Russian use of force.
“Today, and merely to spite the U.S., many Muslims forget that [Russian prime minister and former president] Vladimir Putin has repeatedly taken violent military stances against Muslims in Chechnya and elsewhere, and celebrate his violence to compensate for their constant failure,” she wrote.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union had close ties at times with a number of countries, including Egypt, Syria, Iraq, South Yemen, Algeria and Libya. It was also a key ally of the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization.
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