Archivo categoría «Próximo-Medio Oriente»
By Robert Malley, Middle East program director at the International Crisis Group and Peter Harling, who is based in Damascus, is the group’s project director for Iraq, Syria and Lebanon (THE WASHINGTON POST, 06/03/10):
Much as he would like to disentangle himself from his Middle East inheritance, President Obama is having a rough time doing so. The obvious legacy is an unwanted war in Iraq and a bankrupt Israeli-Arab peace process. But equally constraining is a popular way of conceiving of the region — divided, schematically, between militants beholden to Iran and moderates sympathetic to the United States. While there… Seguir leyendo
Por Shlomo Ben-Ami, ex ministro de Relaciones Exteriores israelí y vicepresidente del Centro Internacional Toledo para la Paz. © Project Syndicate, 2010. Traducción de Claudia Martínez (EL PAÍS, 05/03/10):
En todo Oriente Próximo está cobrando fuerza una creencia generalizada: la guerra es inevitable. Algunos ven la guerra como una manera de resolver una situación cada vez más empantanada y sacudir un orden regional nada funcional.
Una descarga de comentarios incendiarios entre Israel, de un lado, y Siria y Hezbolá, de otro, ha alimentado las angustias sobre la posibilidad de una guerra en la frontera norte de Israel. Tal es el… Seguir leyendo
By Gabrielle Rifkind, director of the Middle East programme at Oxford Research Group, group analyst and specialist in conflict resolution (THE GUARDIAN, 26/02/10):
The diplomatic crisis following allegations that the Mossad assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai has come on top of what looks like ongoing deadlock in the two-state talks between Israelis and Palestinians. But the hysteria of conflict and the ensuing dramas tend to have more appeal than the careful steps of conflict resolution.
When it comes to Israel and its regional neighbours, bellicose language often drowns out peacemaking in a conflict that so often looks intractable. But a… Seguir leyendo
By Robert L. Bernstein, the former president and chief executive of Random House and the chairman of Human Rights Watch from 1978 to 1998 (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 20/10/09):
As the founder of Human Rights Watch, its active chairman for 20 years and now founding chairman emeritus, I must do something that I never anticipated: I must publicly join the group’s critics. Human Rights Watch had as its original mission to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn… Seguir leyendo
Por Salah Serour, director del Centro de Estudios Orientales y Mediterráneos, EL FARO (EL CORREO DIGITAL, 28/09/09):
No cabe duda de que los múltiples mensajes de Obama dirigidos al mundo islámico son cada vez más atrevidos y abiertos con el fin de alcanzar el entendimiento con una población de más de millón y medio de personas, los musulmanes. Además, estos mensajes podrían considerarse como unos acontecimientos importantes que podrían marcar el comienzo de una nueva era en la historia y de un cambio sustancial en la actitud de EE UU ante los problemas y cuestiones internacionales. Si analizamos su contenido,… Seguir leyendo
By Prince Turki al-Faisal, the chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, a former director of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services and ambassador to the United States (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 13/09/09):
The United States and other Western powers have for some time been pushing Saudi Arabia to make more gestures toward Israel. More recently, the crown prince of Bahrain urged greater communication with Israel and joint steps from Arab states to revive the peace process.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, the custodian of its two holy mosques, the world’s energy superpower and the de… Seguir leyendo
By David Clark, a freelance political writer and analyst (THE GUARDIAN, 14/08/09):
One consequence of Iran’s disputed presidential election is that President Obama’s best-case scenario for dealing with the nuclear issue can now be dismissed. This envisaged a reformist victory and a new Iranian government willing to stop short of turning Iran into the world’s 10th nuclear weapons state. The scale of opposition protest suggests that change will come, but it may arrive later rather than sooner. In the meantime we are faced with an insecure conservative regime that hopes to shore up its fragile position by exaggerating the external… Seguir leyendo
Por Mariano Aguirre, director del Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre, Oslo (LA VANGUARDIA, 09/08/09):
Estados Unidos está ejerciendo una presión inédita sobre el Gobierno israelí para que congele los asentamientos en Cisjordania y se avance hacia la creación de un Estado palestino. Pero el primer ministro Benjamin Netanyahu y la coalición derechista que le sostiene no ceden. La cuestión israelo-palestina es una prueba de fuerza para Barack Obama tanto en Oriente Medio como dentro de EE. UU., donde el presidente cuenta con aliados, pero también con fuertes enemigos de su estrategia hacia la región.
Desde enero, la Casa Blanca puso en marcha… Seguir leyendo
Por David Mathieson (EL CORREO DIGITAL, 05/08/09):
Mientras todo el mundo estaba pensando en sus vacaciones, el equipo del presidente Obama para Oriente Medio ha hecho las maletas para viajar a la zona. Richard Holbrook, el enviado especial para Afganistán y Pakistán (Afpak), se encuentra allí trabajando con una energía vertiginosa en reuniones con los líderes del Gobierno y de la oposición en Karachi. El senador George Mitchell, que tanto ayudó a lograr la paz en Irlanda del Norte, ha pasado por Egipto y Siria antes de ir a Israel a fin de preparar las negociaciones con los palestinos. Y… Seguir leyendo
By Khaled Diab, a Brussels-based journalist and writer (THE GUARDIAN, 29/07/09):
First, the good news. Arab countries have the lowest levels of malnutrition and hunger in the developing world, have made “striking progress” in extending the lives of their citizens, abject poverty is comparatively low and, surprisingly (for me at least), levels of income inequality are moderate across most of the region. These are some of the few silver linings contained in the latest disillusioning and disturbing Arab Human Development Report (AHDR).
Despite the bad international press the conflicts in the region draw, the Arab world is, based on its… Seguir leyendo
Por Samuel Hadas, Primer embajador de Israel en España y ante la Santa Sede (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 24/07/09):
Tema: Es un momento oportuno para analizar los primeros seis meses de la política de la Administración del presidente Barack Obama en Oriente Medio.
Resumen: La ofensiva diplomática del presidente Obama en Oriente Medio se caracteriza, desde el inicio mismo de su mandato, por un viraje radical en relación a la política de su predecesor, que se manifiesta en su implicación directa, así como en una serie de iniciativas simultáneas destinadas a acometer los complejos y amenazadores problemas que intenta solventar.
Análisis:… Seguir leyendo
By Shaikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, prince of Bahrain (THE WASHINGTON POST, 17/07/09):
We need fresh thinking if the Arab Peace Initiative is to have the impact it deserves on the crisis that needlessly impoverishes Palestinians and endangers Israel’s security.
This crisis is not a zero-sum game. For one side to win, the other does not have to lose.
The peace dividend for the entire Middle East is potentially immense. So why have we not gotten anywhere?
Our biggest mistake has been to assume that you can simply switch peace on like a light bulb. The reality is that peace… Seguir leyendo
By Jim Hoagland (THE WASHINGTON POST, 28/06/09):
“President” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s brutal clampdown on his opponents is a tragedy for Iranians. But the shredding of Iran’s pretensions of being a stable, democratic state may offer positive change in the Middle East in the longer term.
Such an outcome is far from guaranteed — and is likely to come only after sharp new regional tensions or even violence sparked by Iran, Israel or both nations acting separately in reinforcing fashion. The idea that the use of force can make things better has not been abandoned in the Middle East.
The election crisis… Seguir leyendo
By Michael Gerson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 26/06/09):
In early 2005, the advance of freedom in the Middle East had an air of inevitability. Hundreds of thousands demonstrated in Beirut to demand an end to Syrian occupation. Eight and a half million Iraqis voted with purpled fingers. Even Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak permitted a multiparty election. People talked of an “Arab spring.”
By 2006, what had seemed inevitable was dismissed as incredible. Iraq had descended into civil strife, apparently aided by elections that reinforced sectarian divides. Voting in the Palestinian territories brought Hamas to power. Mubarak, the old angler, reeled back… Seguir leyendo
By Joschka Fischer, Germany’s foreign minister and vice chancellor from 1998 to 2005 (THE GUARDIAN, 20/06/09):
Great speeches are all too often underestimated as being mere words. In fact, they can have powerful consequences. This is obviously the case with President Obama’s recent address to the Muslim world in Cairo, because – mere coincidence or excellent timing? – things in the Middle East have been in flux ever since.
Since Obama’s Cairo speech, there have been elections in Lebanon where, surprisingly, the alliance of pro-western parties scored a clear victory against Hezbollah and its