{"id":268,"date":"2007-04-02T09:05:06","date_gmt":"2007-04-02T14:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=268"},"modified":"2007-04-02T09:05:06","modified_gmt":"2007-04-02T14:05:06","slug":"rices-second-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=268","title":{"rendered":"Rice’s Second Track?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Secretary of State Condoleezza R<\/title>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently flew to the Middle East.\u00c2\u00a0 In terms of “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/news\/nationworld\/chi-0703260094mar26,1,7622825.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed\">diplomacy<\/a>,” however, Rice appears to have been phoning it in.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><font id=\"text\">“My approach has been, I admit, careful. It’s been \tstep-by-step. <strong>I’ve not been willing to try for the big bang<\/strong>,” Rice \tsaid after her meetings Sunday. “To take the time to talk to the parties on \tthe basis of the same questions and the same issues is well worth the time . \t. . and I won’t promise you that I won’t have to do that again before we can \teven move the process even further forward.”<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If there is not going to be a “diplomatic” big bang, this may not preclude a different kind of “big bang” in the region.<\/p>\n<p>As Dick Durata of “<a href=\"http:\/\/dickdurata.blogspot.com\/\">Blog Simple<\/a>” noted in a comment to <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=267\">my recent post<\/a> on Saudi factionalism, Rice’s visit to the Middle East also included a meeting “Prince Bandar and the heads of Jordanian and Egyptian security.”<\/p>\n<p>I had missed that tidbit.\u00c2\u00a0 But the confab did catch the attention of several others.<\/p>\n<p>As Rami G. Khouri points out in his<em> Daily Star<\/em> column, “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailystar.com.lb\/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=81043\">When Arab Security Chiefs Conduct Foreign Policy<\/a>,” Rice’s visit to the Middle East operated on two relatively distinct tracks.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Two intriguing meetings took place this past week in the Arab world. In \tEgypt, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the intelligence \tservices directors of four Arab states – Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the \tUnited Arab Emirates. Just days later, Arab heads of state met in Riyadh, \tSaudi Arabia, for their annual Arab League summit.<\/p>\n<p>Which of the two meetings was more significant and signaled the tone, \tcontent, and direction of Arab state policies?…<\/p>\n<p>Rice’s meeting with the intelligence chiefs was a novelty that deserves \tmore scrutiny, for both its current meaning and for its future \timplications…<\/p>\n<p>Rice’s latest visit to the region included her quest for “moderate Sunni \tArabs” who would join the United States and Israel in their face-off against \tIran and its Arab allies, alongside her meeting to foster bonding between \tthe US State Department and Arab security establishments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To say that this meeting went without much publicity is an understatement.\u00c2\u00a0 <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.intelligenceonline.com\/\">Intelligence Online<\/a><\/em> covered the meeting.\u00c2\u00a0 The resulting report appears plausible, but I cannot speak to the validity of the details:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Rice was accompanied on the occasion by CIA director Michael Hayden. \tAmong those in attendance were the heads of the foreign intelligence \tagencies of Egypt (general Omar Suleiman), Jordan (Mohamed Dahabi) and Saudi \tArabia (prince Moqrin bin Abdulaziz) as well as the bosses of the Saudi and \tUnited Arab Emirates national security councils, prince Bandar bin Sultan \tand sheikh Hazaa bin Zayed al Nahyan.<\/p>\n<p>According to Arab diplomatic sources in Amman, the first issue on the \tagenda concerned relations between Hamas and Syria and Iran. The head of \tJordanian intelligence talked of several recent attempts to sneak arms of \tIranian origin into Jordan…<\/p>\n<p>[One] theme of the meeting was the danger that Iran posed to the region. \tThe CIA underscored the need to track down Iranian networks operating out of \tthe United Arab Emirates, and particularly out of Dubai, and the other Gulf \tcountries. Hayden also demanded that a special eye be kept on Shi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ite \tminorities in Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He also similarly claimed \tthat efforts to limit the flow of Saudi extremists into Iraq left much to be \tdesired. It was agreed that Arab intelligence agencies ought to focus their \tattention on Iranian military activities in Syria and Lebanon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Isn’t it possible that these are “<a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=265\">Cheney’s Arabs<\/a>” and Arabists?\u00c2\u00a0 The ones who are most eager and willing to join the US and Israel in a challenge to Iranian power?<\/p>\n<p>Bandar is the most obvious name on the list, given the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=266\">speculations about his direct links to Cheney<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And even as Saudi King Abdullah has been forging links between Abbas and Hamas in Mecca, Jordan’s director of General Intelligence, Mohammed Dahabi, has been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.albawaba.com\/en\/countries\/Palestine\/197927\">ringing alarm bells about Hamas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>CIA director Michael Hayden doesn’t always read as a Cheney guy.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was hard to miss his effort to establish his credentials as an Iran hawk when he <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/11\/28\/world\/middleeast\/28military.html?ex=1322370000&en=78d3cce73159f213&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss\"> testified before Congress<\/a> in November 2006:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In Congressional testimony this month, General Hayden said he was \tinitially skeptical of reports of Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role but changed his mind after \treviewing intelligence reports.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll admit personally,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said at one point in the hearing, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that I have \tcome late to this conclusion, but <strong>I have all the zeal of a convert<\/strong> as \tto the ill effect that the Iranians are having on the situation in Iraq.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I do not know that it all adds up to a second track intended to subvert Saudi King Abdullah.\u00c2\u00a0 But I wouldn’t bet against the idea.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secretary of State Condoleezza RSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently flew to the Middle East.\u00c2\u00a0 In terms of “diplomacy,” however, Rice appears to have been phoning it in. “My approach has been, I admit, careful. It’s been step-by-step. I’ve not been willing to try for the big bang,” Rice said after her meetings Sunday. “To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}