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Arabs Put (Slim) Hopes in New Iranian President
by Reuters
The election of a moderate Iranian president could help rein in
hostility between Tehran and its Arab neighbors, but many Arabs doubt
he can end a sectarian confrontation that has been inflamed by war in
Syria.
Hassan Rowhani, a Shi'ite cleric known for a conciliatory approach and
backed by reformists, will have only limited say in policy determined
by Iran's supreme leader; but with the Syrian carnage fueling rage
among Sunni Arabs across the region, any gestures from Tehran may help
contain it.
"We hope the new Iranian president will be a believer in a political
solution in Syria," said one ambassador at the Arab League in Cairo.
"All that we read about Rowhani might be grounds for hope - but there
is a great difference between election campaigns and what is said once
in office."
For the United States and Western powers, at odds with Iran for decades
and now rallying with arms behind rebels fighting Syria's
Iranian-backed president, fierce religious enmities in the oil-rich
Middle East add to fears of wider instability.
In Saudi Arabia, whose U.S.-allied rulers lead opposition to what they
see as Iran's drive to spread its power and religion, analyst Jamal
Khashoggi said: "I'm sure for the Saudi leadership this is the best
outcome of the elections."
He recalled that Iran's last reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, who
visited Riyadh while in office from 1997-2005, had mended ties - but at
a time of less ferocious disputes. Unlike now, Khashoggi said, "Iran
was not meddling heavily in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen ... There were no
Shi'ites killing Sunnis."
In Syria, where mainly Sunni rebels are battling Iran's ally President
Bashar al-Assad and his Alawite establishment, who belong to an
offshoot of Shi'ism, opposition activists saw little hope for change
from Rowhani.
"The election is cosmetic," said Omar al-Hariri from Deraa, where the
uprising began during the Arab Spring two years ago.
Muhammed al-Husseini, from the Sunni Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham
in Raqaa, noted power in Iran rested with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei.
"The powers given to the Iranian president are weak these days," he
said. "They are fake powers."
In Bahrain, whose Saudi-backed Sunni monarchy accuses Iran of fomenting
protests among the Shi'ite majority on the island since 2011,
Information Minister Samira Rajab said: "I think Rowhani is one of a
team. And anybody who comes from that team will continue the same
policy ... We have no more trust in the Iranian regime after what
happened in Bahrain."
Egyptian Caution
In Egypt, by far the biggest Arab nation, new rulers from the Muslim
Brotherhood had lately launched a rapprochement with Iran but have now
joined a Sunni call for jihad in Syria after Iran's Lebanese ally
Hezbollah sent in its fighters last month.
Traditionally more open than the Saudi clerical hierarchy to
conciliation across the sectarian divide, the Brotherhood still hopes
for a change of heart in Tehran.
"We are looking forward to seeing how the winner is going to act," said
Murad Ali, a spokesman for the Islamist movement's Freedom and Justice
Party. "Will there be any change to the policies from the Iranians,
especially concerning the Syrian crisis? We are in general open to
cooperation with Iran ... However, we do have our concerns ... related
to ... their interference in Syrian affairs."
On the streets of Cairo, however, sectarian passions are running high,
piling pressure on Egyptian and other Arab rulers.
Outside the Al-Azhar Mosque, built 1,000 years ago by the Shi'ite
Fatimid caliphs who founded the city but now a major seat of Sunni
learning, construction worker Mohamed Abdelsattar, 35, said: "All
Egyptians hate Iran after what has happened in Syria. What's happening
there now is Shi'ites killing Sunnis."
Limousine driver Abdelaziz Darwish, 57, had low expectations of any
change in Tehran. "All Iranians are the same," he said. "Shi'ites are
more dangerous even than the Jews."
Standing by his fresh-juice stand, Khaled Fathi, 49, twinned his anger
at Iranian involvement in Syria with suspicion of the welcome that
Islamist President Mohamed Morsi gave earlier this year to Iran's
hardline outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"Iran makes problems for us all over the world," he said. "Iran is
helping Morsi, I'm sure of it."
A group of Lebanese Sunni clerics, visiting Al-Azhar while attending
the Cairo conference that has issued a call for holy war in Syria,
voiced some hope for change from Rowhani, however.
"Maybe this new president in Iran will be better," said Sheikh Hassan
Abdelrahman from the city of Tripoli, which has seen recent fighting
between Lebanese Sunnis and Shi'ites.
"We came to Egypt to tell Mohamed Morsi that we reject Iranian actions
in Syria ... But we are working for all religions to be at peace," said
Sheikh Malik al-Jdeideh, also from Tripoli.
Sectarian atrocities in Syria, and the open appearance of Iran's
Lebanese allies on the battlefield, has forged an unusual degree of
unity among major Arab governments following the wave of revolt that
shook the region and notably replaced U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak in Egypt
with the Islamists of the Brotherhood.
Gulf Tensions
Iran's new influence in Iraq - after the 2003 U.S. invasion replaced
the Sunni Saddam Hussein with an elected, Shi'ite-led government - had
already put Saudi Arabia on the defensive. And Tehran's nuclear dispute
with the West and Israel has alarmed oil-exporting neighbors, who fear
a war, with all the upheaval it would bring.
One Arab League ambassador said Gulf states hoped Rowhani, a former
nuclear negotiator, might help to defuse that tension.
But a Gulf envoy at the League said Rowhani would have little power and
was unlikely, in any case, to differ in his views: "They all aim to
export the Iranian revolution to neighboring states and interfere in
the Gulf states and Syria and Lebanon."
For Shi'ites who live in Sunni-ruled states, and often complain of
being unfairly branded as agents of the Persian-speaking power, any
reduction in tension would be welcome.
Khalil Ebrahim al-Marzooq of Bahrain's opposition al-Wefaq party, which
speaks for many Shi'ites, said the election might bring warmer ties
across the Gulf that would help his community.
"When relations are better," he said, "it gives the government no
excuses to deprive the people of Bahrain of their rights."
"If this sectarian war going on in the region can cool down or
stabilize, that will help to improve the relations between the Sunnis
and the Shi'ites here," said Jafar al-Shayab, a former elected official
in the mainly Shi'ite Saudi district of Qatif:
Khalil al-Anani, a senior fellow at Washington's Middle East Institute
currently in Cairo, said Rowhani's ability to induce the Iranian
leadership to take the heat out of its standoff with the Sunni Arab
powers was unclear, but of vital importance.
"Mending Iran's relations with Arabs would require Rowhani to secure
strong support from other influential power centers in Iran ... which
is unlikely in the short term," he said. "The question of whether
Rowhani can be another Khatami is important and crucial for both Iran
and the Arabs."
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[1]http://www.voanews.com/content/arab-opinions-new-iranian-president-r
owhani/1682655.html
References
1. http://www.voanews.com/content/arab-opinions-new-iranian-president-rowhani/1682655.html