(Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State) - Hezbollah's July 12 incursion into Israel and the subsequent military confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah forces helped clarify the nature of the struggle at the heart of contemporary Middle East politics, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, reports Trend.
I think that we got a very big wake-up call in the summer with the war in Lebanon because in a way that it had not really been clarified before, the Middle East with all of its historic animosities and so forth, I think, had to confront its modern - its current environment, which is one in which extremism on one side and moderation on the other came into pretty sharp relief, she told the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal September 25.
Speaking to editors at the New York Post, she placed Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and Syria on the side of extremism while saying Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas represent the forces of moderation.
Rice also said the reactions of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan demonstrated a profound concern among moderate Arab states with the destabilizing threat of Hezbollah's unchecked adventurism.
I think that you see these moderate forces seeing their own interests threatened in very important ways, she told editors at the New York Times.
Rice predicted that this growing concern would result in greater support for moderate, democratic forces within the region, and she said the international community should encourage this development, particularly as it tries to marshal resistance to any expansion of Iranian influence in the Middle East.
I think you have to mobilize the neighbors, who were unnerved by what happened in Lebanon and do see the Iranian threat more clearly than they did before, she told the Post. And I think you will see that those states will counter Iranian activities in the region and they will put money and resources into moderate forces. The Saudis within days put $1.5 billion into Lebanon, $1.5 billion to counter Hezbollah and Iran.
She said the coming months and years likely would see additional efforts to rally the forces of moderation against Iranian-backed extremism.
Rice offered an analogy between post-World War II Europe and the current-day Middle East, saying it is necessary to nurture the forces of democracy to put an end to the extremism, conflict and violence once and for all.
You've got to now change the structure there so that you create an environment in which you're not going to have these extremist forces, these jihadist forces, the financing of terrorism, the madrasas that are running wild, the authoritarian governments that don't permit political space for moderate forces so that all of the politics takes place in the radical mosques, she told the Times. Unless you deal with that problem, you're going to continue to have a very formidable jihadist movement, whether it calls itself al-Qaida or something else. And it will take time to transform that, but you'd better get about doing it.
Rice acknowledged that the democratization process likely would empower certain parties that the United States does not like, but she said it is worth establishing a competitive political environment nevertheless.
You're better off making people compete in the open than cover their faces and run the streets with guns, she told the Journal.
She said that the current environment does not prevent politics from taking place. It merely confines politics to radical mosques instead of letting it flourish in the public arena. And I think it's one reason that these forces emerged stronger and more organized, because they were organized and they were doing politics and they were doing social services, she said.
I think … going ahead and creating a competitive environment is appropriate, but the answer to the emergence of Islamist forces is to create or is to support moderate forces that can contest on the political battleground, she said.