Is USA playing up Sunnis against Shiites?

I. Arab summit in Qatar

An Arab summit in Qatar on 30 March sought to gear up the Islamic world against American manipulations to divide the Islamic as well as Arab world and keep the rift prolong endlessly to let USA plus its allies advance their global agenda. The summit would also give backing to Sudan over an international arrest warrant for its president. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's indictment by the International Criminal Court in The Hague over atrocities in Darfur is set to present a further challenge for leaders of the 22-member Arab League.

Saudi Arabia has been keen on a truce with Syria and Qatar and is concerned that Arab divisions allow Iran to trumpet itself as the champion of the Palestinians. Slow rise of Iran has got reflected in Saudi Kingdom. Tensions between the Saudi authorities and minority Saudi Shi'ites bubbled to the surface last month with clashes in Medina and rare talk by a firebrand Shi'ite cleric that Shi'ites in the oil-rich Eastern Province might one day seek secession. Goodwill feelers put out to Iran by new U.S. president Barack Obama have created further unease in some anxious Sunni nations.

The United States is known for its double-speaks and anti-Islamic stance making it invade Islamic nations on fictitious pretexts generated for the purposes. Saudi Arabia , which sees itself as the leader of mainstream Sunni Islam, fears that the USA might, in the emerging scenario, come to a historic agreement with Shi’ite Iran and recognize it as the new Gulf regional power at par with Israel , thus creating a possible weakened position for and threat to Riyadh . The Saudi government and the rest of the Arab world are fully aware that the USA is going to be too distracted with financial troubles and Iraq and Afghanistan to fight inter-Arab affairs. Riyadh has almost lost faith in Washington’s capacity to make the Palestine state a reality by persuading terrorist Israel and its resolve to defend its corner in regional disputes.

Israel’s recent war on Gaza has the Arab nation on notice and exposed the divisions in Arab as well as Islamic world, with Qatar hosting a crisis summit that brought together Arab leaders plus Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and leading figures from Hamas. The meeting threatened to revoke an Arab peace proposal to Israel , championed by Washington ’s Arab allies.

Arab governments have struggled to respond to Iran ’s political clout since the U.S.. invasion of Iraq in 2003, bringing the Shi'ite Muslims there to power. According to USA , the leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia see Iran ’s hand behind the strength of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories -- Islamist groups who refuse to renounce armed action in the historic Arab conflict with a fascist Israel . Other Arab countries with good ties to Iran , such as Syria and Qatar , back the populist view in the Arab world that the policies of Hezbollah and Hamas are legitimate responses to Israel , which, under protection from USA and EU, still rejects returning Arab lands it seized in 1967.

Qatar, which hosts a key US military base, said last week it had faced pressure not to receive Bashir. (No wonder the pro-US nations play dirty games in supporting Indian bid for cricket tosses & victories both in and outside India) Qatar ’s emir greeted President Bashir with hugs and kisses in a red carpet welcome at Doha ’s airport. Bashir flew into on 29 March after visits to Egypt, Eritrea and Libya in the weeks since the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted him on charges of masterminding war crimes in Darfur . First, Egypt and Saudi Arabia refused to attend, saying an economic summit of Arab leaders that had already been planned before the Gaza war would suffice, but now Saudi is attending. Egypt’s President Hosing Umbra is not expected to attend because of lingering rancor over Qatar’s attempts to rally Arab countries and Iran behind Hamas during Israel 's war on Gaza. But Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, attending despite Saudi misgivings over Qatari policy, has reconciliation as a priority.

II- Support for Sudan

Egypt is the Arab world's most populous country and Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest exporter of oil and the birthplace of Islam, making them regional heavyweights. The Egyptian and Saudi leaders had pulled out of last year's summit in Damascus in protest at Syria 's backing for Hezbollah in Lebanon , which they believe was done at Iran 's bidding. Syria 's President Bashar al-Assad flew to Riyadh this month for fence-mending talks with King Abdullah ahead of the Doha summit. Plans by Qatar and Arab League chief Amr Moussa to make the meeting a reconciliation summit were spoiled by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's surprise decision not to attend -- apparently over continuing rancor at the Gaza summit chaos.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is in the small Gulf Arab state Qatar for an Arab summit due to discuss an indictment against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Sudan 's leader was accused by the ICC on 4 March of seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in his country's Darfur region.  He has already visited Egypt , Eritrea and Libya over the past week to drum up support from his neighbors. Qatar has not signed the ICC charter, which obliges member states to arrest indictees on their territory. Sudan 's highest religious authority last week issued a fatwa urging Bashir not to risk himself by attending, citing threats from enemies. The Sudanese leader is said to have been emboldened by the 22-member Arab League's decision not to enforce the warrant even though three of its member countries are ICC signatories. Many African states, along with Sudan 's key ally China , have called for the ICC proceedings to be suspended, arguing it will hamper efforts to bring peace to Darfur .

Meanwhile Libya 's leader Col Muammar Gaddafi earlier said the ICC was a "new form of world terrorism". Gaddafi, who is also president of the African Union, spoke out against the ICC warrant on a visit to the organization’s headquarters in Ethiopia. Gaddafi told reporters the indictment was an "attempt by the West to decolonize their former colonies. It is a practice of First World terrorism," he added. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend Monday's opening of the Arab summit despite the presence of Bashir, which is a positive sign.

III. Just One Word: Islam a Divided House?

The Doha summit is still a battleground between the emerging de facto alliance between Qatar, Syria and Iran on one side, and the Saudis, Egyptians and Jordanians on the other. Qatar, now a major natural gas power, has billed the summit as a chance for reconciliation among Arab states over a series of regional conflicts linked to non-Arab Shi'ite power Iran. USA is playing its card rather too well in the region by splitting the Islamic world along the Sunni-Shiite lines and it has made enormous success thanks to the deadly divisions in the Arab world. Riyadh, which sees itself as the bastion of mainstream Sunni Islam, fears Washington will end its conflict with Iran at the expense of its traditional oil-for-security ally.

Since Saudi is represented in the summit, many say Mubarak's absence would not affect Saudi- and Egyptian-led attempts to get Hamas to join a unity government with the Fatah faction led by U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The only position in Doha is the Egyptian-Saudi policy, while other points of dispute such as Syrian policy in Lebanon and Damascus ' alliance with Tehran would not be on the table.

The appearance of Sudan 's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, flouting an international arrest warrant, is set to overshadow efforts to heal a deep Arab rift over how to handle rising power Iran . Arab states have given strong backing to Sudan . Bashir's presence poses a challenge for the summit of the 22-member Arab League but officials in Doha said Saudi Arabia had pressed the summit to offer strong support for Sudan. Qatar, with ambitions to be a major regional powerbroker, has maintained close links with Iran, despite U.S. and Arab pressure to keep its distance from a country they suspect of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

The anti-Islamic world would defame Islam, but the Islamic world and its rulers should shed repressive methods and rule the countries positively by Shari’a laws. After the cold blooded murder of Saddam Hussein, a staunch anti-American who challenged US unilateralism in Afghanistan, international justice for the Sudanese leader would set another precedent for leaders accused by opposition and rights groups of ruling by repression.

The vital question still rings around our ears almost loudly: Is the super power and international dictator USA playing up Sunnis against Shiites? Doha might not offer any clear-cut answer. At least, if it helps ease a deep rift among Arab states over how to deal with ascendant Shiite power Iran , that would be a remarkable achievement. 

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Yours Sincerely,

DR. ABDUL RUFF Colachal

Columnist & Independent Researcher in World Affairs, The only Indian to have gone through entire India
South Asia.