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Mideast Clan Mindset

(UPI) Claude Salhani - U.S. policymakers grossly miscalculated the importance of tribal mentality, sectarian belonging, and clan loyalty in the Middle East - concepts that are hard to fully fathom in most of the West. Both Jordan and Saudi Arabia feel they owe loyalty to their fellow Sunnis over any pact they may have entered with Washington. Jordan and Saudi Arabia see the expansionist ideals of Shiism as a direct threat to their national security. An Arab intelligence source based in Paris confirmed that he had seen documents proving that money and weapons were being sent to Iraq's Sunni rebels from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The overthrow of Saddam by the U.S. military accomplished in a matter of months what the ayatollahs in Tehran have been unsuccessfully attempting to do for more than two decades, and has for the first time in history given the Shiites control over an Arab country. Considering that a few centuries have passed since the death of sacred Shiite imams at the hands of the Sunnis, the scars appear as fresh as though the killings took place last week.
2005-12-16 00:00:00
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