Of course, the Arabs taking the responsibility for the violence aren’t the ones actually causing it, well, except for the ones funding the Sunni or Shia terrorists in Iraq, but still: Holy crap!
The Iraqi government is responsible for defusing the sectarian violence tearing the country apart and should redraft the constitution and rescind laws that give preferential treatment to Shiites and Kurds, Arab foreign ministers said in a statement Sunday.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa also hinted that Arab governments may take their recommendations on stemming the violence in Iraq to the U.N. Security Council if the government’s efforts to end the crisis fail.
Sunday’s statement was the strongest sign yet from the mostly Sunni Muslim Arab governments in the Middle East that they blame the Iraqi government for the country’s sectarian strife.
Shyeah, that’ll stop them. “Stop this bombing of civilians right now, or we’ll sic the UN on you!” Because that’s been so effective in Darfur. And, well, everywhere else. (The Exception Clause, as always, goes when Israel is concerned.)
Mind you, this all sounds very good, and once again, the utter hypocrisy of the League of Dictators, Theocracies, and Monarchies doesn’t seem to affect anyone’s digestion. A quick glance at the Wikipedia site yields this nifty fact:
The Arab League differs notably from some other regional organizations such as the European Union, in that it has not achieved any significant degree of regional integration and the organization itself has no direct relations with the citizens of its member states.
All Arab League members are also members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
Yup. All of ’em are Islamic states.
Among the recommendations are expanding the political process to achieve broader participation of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, confronting sectarian tensions and working to eliminate them, speeding up constitutional reform, and ensuring the equal distribution of wealth.
The ministers also called for revoking an Iraqi law that dismissed senior members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party from the government and urged the government to pass a law that specifically says Iraqis should be treated equally based on their citizenship, not their religion or ethnicity.
In addition, they called on the Iraqi government to disband Shiite militias, end armed demonstrations and decide on a specific timeframe for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
They’re threatening to go to the Security Council over that, too. Shyeah. That’ll happen. When the U.S. loses its veto.
Overall, it’s just words, and I notice that the Arabs have a ton to say about conditions in Iraq and Israel (we’ll hear about that tomorrow, I’m sure), but never anything to say about the lack of democracy in their own lands.
Funny, that.
The Arab League, and Amr Moussa in particular, were big supporters of Saddam while he was murdering hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. They were distinctly uninterested in urging him to make things better for the Shi’a and Kurds then. Bloody-handed hypocrites.
Huh? The way I interpret this story is the Arabs (Muslim Sunnis) are NOT taking responsibility for any of the violence, but are blaming the Kurd-Shiite govt of Iraq for being unfair, thereby causing violence by those who feel “oppressed,” as they like to say. It’s the same-old, same-old. Far be it from the Sunni Arabs to take responsibility for their own actions–like blowing thousand of people up in Iraq’s version of Wal-Mart, the Suqs.
I thought it was refreshing that they didn’t blame Americans. Or Israel. But yeah, you’re right. It’s a cover for the Sunnis.
Incoherent. On the one hand, this is pure “Sunnis blaming the Shi’ites” business, with the Arab League blaming the Shi’a for a constitution that supposedly subordinates the Sunnis. On the other hand, the Arab League is calling for a new “one man, one vote” constitution, which, if implemented, would put the Iraqi Sunnis in about the same electoral situation as Republicans running for local office in the District of Columbia.