The split in the Arab world. Qatar cooperates with Israel

The war in the Middle East has become a test for the Arabs. Whose side are they on? Are they with Palestinians, or Americans? Washington is doing its best to make this unity split, the unity, which appeared only after the beginning of the latest intifada.

Arabs are still recovering from the War in the Gulf. Back in those days, they had to make a choice between the USA and Iraq. The Arab world today is together with the people of Palestine. The countries of the Persian Gulf are rendering financial and financial support to Palestine. Over 35 million dollars were collected in the United Arab Emirates during a television program that lasted for many hours. Another program like that will take place in Saudi Arabia that has already transferred 15.4 million dollars to the League of the Arab States for rendering support to Palestine. Kuwait assigned $7.5 million to that fund. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ordered the government of the country to find $8.8 million for the financial support of the Palestinian “intifada.”

But as it turns out, not everyone is so kind and friendly. As the Arab newspaper Az-zaman reported on April 11, the Qatar government made several members of the movement Hamas (who were living in Qatar’s capital) leave the territory of the emirate. Pursuant to the information of the newspaper, all members of the Palestinian administration, who lived in the city of Doha, had already left Qatar’s territory. Moreover, none of the Palestinian leaders visited that country over the recent months, the newspaper wrote.

Az-Zaman informed that the Palestinian government was aware of the cooperation between the intelligence services of Qatar and Israel. For example, everybody knows that Qatar reported to Israel about the vessel that was carrying over the weapons for Palestinians.

As the newspaper informed, the Qatar intelligence found out that the vessel “Karina,” loaded with Iranian weapons and ammunition on board, went into the sea. When the ship was sailing in the area of the Kish island, the Qatari intelligence reported on that to Israel. The Israeli navy seized the vessel in the Red Sea on January 3 of the current year.

By the way, it became known today that Palestine Liberation Organization was forced to leave its office in Washington. This was informed by The Jerusalem Post. According to the information, the official reason for such actions was the claim that the Palestinian autonomy was not an officially recognized territory, so it could not have the official embassy, and the offices of Palestine Liberation Organization were de-facto performing the function of the diplomatic mission of Palestine in the USA.

There is also an unofficial version of those events, which seems to be more real. Palestine Liberation Organization did not pay the rent on time. The company Cushman & Wakefield that owned the building used that circumstance to get politically even with the Palestinian representatives.

In the meantime, the American law-makers are racking their brains over several variants of the bill, on the ground of which President Bush would be able to prohibit the activity of Palestine Liberation Organization on the US territory, since Yasser Arafat failed to execute the obligations after signing agreements with Israel in Oslo.

It was also reported that if the USA proved that the there were financial relations between the Palestinian administration and the terrorist group Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade (the adequate documents were found and exposed by the Israeli special services), then Palestine Liberation Organization’s mission will be shut down, pursuant to American laws.

So, Colin Powell, who is coming to the Middle East today, will have a lot to ponder over. The split within Arabs is good for Washington and Israel, and even if the information is not going to be confirmed, the seeds of doubt have already been planted.

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov