IRNA -- Peace in the Middle East needs to be comprehensive and durable and cannot be achieved by a "roadmap" that will only benefit the usurper entity of Israel, wrote `Kayhan International' on Tuesday. Washington's roadmap to Middle East peace will lead to nowhere and end up only in a quagmire, added the English-language daily in its Viewpoint column.
| Unlike the situation that currently prevails in the Middle East... |
Conflicting Western media reports over the recent visit to some regional Arab states by US Secretary of State Colin Powell have it that Powell has in blunt terms asked Syria "to cut support for liberation movements and close down the offices of anti-Zionist Palestinian groups in Damascus," the paper pointed out.
| Where's the conflict? He said that was what he said, and Syria said that was what he said... |
However, Palestinian groups downgraded the threat by saying their bureaus in Damascus have received no instruction whatsoever from their hosts that Washington has warned of "dire consequences" for the government of President Bashar al-Assad if it fails to take action to close down the offices of alleged terrorist organizations.
| "No, no! That's not what he said! It was, ummm... something else." |
Hamas, in the wake of Powell's ultimatum on Syria, has outrightly rejected any pressure that would coerce it to accept the so-called roadmap to peace prepared by Washington, the daily further noted.
| "Don't nobody be tellin' us what to do..." |
In the same vein, Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is a full-fledged freedom-fighting group that has elected representatives in the parliament and ministers in the national cabinet, has warned the Americans not to harbor any illusions of disarmament while the dangerously armed Zionist enemy is in occupation of Arab soil, it added.
| "Yar! We be freedom fighters! Don't even think about messin' with us!" |
Likewise, foreign media reports say that Syria has differentiated the Iraqi issue and the accusations hurled against it by Washington over its alleged harboring of runaway former Iraqi officials of the Baathist regime from the chronic Palestinian question, the daily noted. These developments suggest that Powell has been overstepping or has been under pressure to overstep diplomatic limits when dealing with sovereign independent states, the paper believes.
| What part about "do it, or we'll take you apart" don't you understand? |
Powell's arrogant statements in an interview broadcast over the American NBC TV on Sunday evidently exposed his sitution, the paper wrote. "The first black person, or to be more appropriate, an Afro-American, ever to be promoted to the higher echelons of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy in the White House has dealt the conscience of his colored compatriots a massive blow," the daily highlighted.
| That might have been the wrong thing to say. I dunno why, but I think it might have been the wrong thing... Seems to me that Powell's the American secretary of state, not the Black secretary of state. And even if he was, neither Syria nor the Paleos are Black... |
Regrettably, the image of Powell as a conscientious critic of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's roguish policies has been shattered, the paper wrote. Powell, the daily said with due respect, "is no more than a mere messenger running errands for his pale-face bosses."
Let there not be a mistake that it is the "yes sir" mentality of Powell that has sadly given him an unrealistic view of what peace in the Middle East requires, the daily pointed out.
| Or maybe it was that doofus "poet laureate" from Noo Joisey... |
On Monday, the remarks of the Jamaican-born Secretary of State were openly snubbed in Moscow, that is, his statement that the US need only to isolate Iran to make it tow the line, the daily noted. The daily praised Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Rumyantsev for his recent assessment declared to the visiting US Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton that Iran is not violating any of commitments to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and there is no ground to stop Tehran-Moscow cooperation in this regard," it assured. Interestingly, Powell faced another rebuff the same day when Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi refuted the US Secretary of State's claim that the US was cooperating with Iran concerning the situation in Iraq, especially in the south, it said. "Does this mean that US officials are liars and stand guilty of perjury, especially in view of their open alliance with the anti-Iranian grouplet, the MKO?" it asked.
| Compared to Asefi, I'd say the answer's a definite "no"... |
Powell may not be in his post simply because he represents some of the world's oppressed people--the Afro-American communities in the States. But one thing is sure, "Washington's roadmap for Palestine will not lead anywhere and will end in a quagmire," the daily asserted. |