Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Wikileaks documents allege deep regional enmities and a surprising alliance



Al-Masry Al-Youm

"....According to the cable, Aboul Gheit felt it was a matter of honor not to improve relations with Qatar and that in fact, Egypt would “thwart every single Qatari initiative that Doha tries to put forward (during its current term) as president of the Arab League,” boasting that that had already been done.

Additionally, Aboul Gheit contended that former President Hosni Mubarak was himself adamant that Egypt should thwart all Qatari initiatives, even if they were in Egypt’s own interests....

Other cables involving Qatar dispatched from Tel Aviv in March 2009 in a meeting between US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman (he was the acting assistant then, officially assuming his role six months later) and Israeli Foreign Affairs Deputy Director General for Middle East and Peace Process Division Yacov Hadas-Handelsman and other Israeli officials.

The cables contained details of the Israeli relationship with many Arab countries, and at one point Hadas told Feltman that Qatari-Israeli relations were affected by the Qatari belief that Israel has secret and powerful ties with Saudi Arabia. Hadas admitted that communication between the two countries were through other channels.

Saudi Arabia has always been cautious not to have any direct communication or ties with Israel because of its position in the Islamic world. In 2002, Saudi Arabia proffered an initiative that it would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The initiative was reaffirmed in 2007, but no headway has been made in that regard.

And because the initiative had never been overtly welcomed by Israel, Hassan discounted the notion that Saudi Arabia would open direct channels of communication with Israel, even if they were kept secret....."

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