Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

The Amr Moussa Smear Campaign | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page

The voices that serve the goals of the Iranian bloc in our region begin attacking today the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa. But why are they attacking Mr. Moussa? Is it because he did not walkout of the Davos meeting like the Turkish Prime Minister did, or because he attended the forum in the first place?

Of course this is not the answer, and those that think these are the reasons that Amr Moussa is being attacked are deluding themselves. The [current] targeting of the Arab League Secretary-General is the resumption of an attack which began and ended without the media shedding any light on it. This attack began in earnest following the failure of the Doha summit in reaching a quorum [of attending Arab countries enabling it to classify itself as an official Arab League summit].

The attacks began from that point, and the Arab League Secretary-General was accused of being behind the disruption of the Doha summit. According to one Arab official, Moussa was affected by what he heard in person from an Arab Foreign Minister with allegiances to the Iranian bloc.

However the speech made by the Saudi monarch [King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz] about [inter-Arab] reconciliation during the Kuwait summit led to a disruption of this campaign against Amr Moussa. And I remember that after King Abdullah’s speech I shook the hand of the Arab Secretary-General and he was smiling.

I told him “I had intended to pose a number of questions to you, but you are one of our own today, and so have a good time.

The Arab League Secretary-General laughed and replied “No…we must talk later!”

Erdogan’s walkout at Davos resulted in a new opportunity to attack Mr. Moussa, an attack which originally aimed at character assassination and the distortion of his image in the Arab world by leveling accusations of treason, and of scrambling after a normalization [of relations with Israel]. Yet today if I were to bump into the Arab League Secretary-General I would burst into laughter [at the absurdity of such accusations].

Some forget that Amr Moussa is the man who made the famous statement with regards to [not] “scrambling” after the normalization of relations with Israel, he is the man who attacks Tel Aviv the most in speeches and statements, and warns of the danger [Tel Aviv] represents to the Arab world.

And so how can he be accused of treason and scrambling for normalization [of relations with Israel] today?

My God! To attack Moussa, and accuse him of treason, merely because he attended the same forum as the Israeli Prime Minister [Ehud Olmert]! And yet at the same time nothing is said about those who were on the same stage as Olmert in Paris! Those who were in the same hall as Olmert during the Mediterranean summit are not considered traitors [so why is Moussa?]

What is also laughable is when Amr Moussa is criticized by a number of writers in Qatari newspapers! However, they forget that the Turkish Prime Minister himself said that he walked out of the forum in protest against its moderator!

That’s not all; Syrian Foreign Minister [Walid Muallem] revealed yesterday that his country will await the outcome of the Israeli elections before making a decision whether to resume indirect negotiations with Tel Aviv by way of Turkish mediation.

And so the targeting of Amr Moussa is nothing more than part of the campaign to target all those that call for a strong Arab role based on Arab cohesion and non-interference in their affairs, i.e. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Arab League.

And so there is a systematic targeting of all those that refuse to mortgage the Arab judgment into the hands of Tehran, or depend on Turkey. For when the Turkish Prime Minister wanted to respond to [Israeli President Shimon] Peres he told him “You are not talking to a tribal Sheik, you are speaking to the Prime Minister of Turkey.” These words sum up a lot!