Dailies and periodicals” “

Morocco, Chechnya, Israel and Saudi Arabia: these are the countries targeted by terrorists after the end of the war in Iraq. The American press in particular has devoted its attention to the new wave of terrorist attacks. In recent days it has dedicated banner headlines to what US President Bush has once again called the “long struggle” against the network of Al-Qaeda and its “allies”. The Herald Tribune of 22/5 analyses the Middle Eastern situation at a time when Israel “is burying the victims of the latest terrorist attack” while “the Palestinians are being isolated in their towns and villages” and everywhere nurturing “resentment and despair”. “This – comments the American paper – may seem the least suitable moment to make any steps towards peace in the Middle East. But it is precisely the moment, for President George W. Bush, to step up his commitment”, and especially to “encourage the negotiations by inviting” both Sharon and Abbas “to the White House”. It’s an initiative that events are showing to be ever more urgent, seeing that “Al Quaida and its allies are re-establishing themselves. The last thing the world needs – comments the Herald Tribune – is that they conquer the hearts and minds of the Palestinians”. “The rebirth of the violence of Al-Qaida”: that’s the headline that the French daily La Croix (20/5) dedicates to the fragile international situation, through an investigation into terrorism and the presence of “radical” Islamic movements in Morocco, the first country (in order of time) to be targeted by terrorist attacks after the war in Iraq. The message of the right-hand man of Bin Laden, the Egyptian al Zawahiri, who incited Moslems to attack the USA, is commented on by Elio Maraone, in the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire. “The war against terrorism continues – says the paper – and all the countries in danger – including Europe, which cannot hope to remain excluded from it – have the duty to unite together in the struggle”. Writing in Le Monde of 22/5, Hubert Védrine invites the American President to pursue his policy “not only in the name of the current multilateral system, which is impotent, but in the name of a reformed world and a new UNO”. The Spanish press analyses the terrorist attacks in Casablanca and Riyadh which respond to “a terrorist logic”: according to Baltasar Porcel writing in the Spanish daily La Vanguardia of 18/5, “the war in Iraq has not only failed to curb the terrorism of Al Qaeda or of anyone else, but has stimulated it”. Roberto Mesa, of the Complutensian University in Madrid, declared in the paper El Periódico of 18/5 that “ the disappearance of Saddam has not led to peace in the world, on the contrary it has increased the instability in the Near East and in the Maghreb“. According to the analyst, the terrorist attack that struck at Spanish interests in Morocco is the result of the Arab perception of “Spain as one of the powers that committed aggression against Iraq“. This has as its consequence the fact that “Spain is the objective of Islamic violence and will have difficulty in future in being able to play the role of a mediator between the Arab world and the West”. The “new wave of terror unleashed by Islamic extremists” in the Near East is an “incredible and extraordinary development” of these difficult first years of the third millennium. The point is made in an editorial in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of Monday 19/5, which stresses the “primitive” aspect of this new escalation. “Armed and lean bodies that need no devices or technology other than their sheer determination”. In the judgement of the authoritative Frankfurt daily “the original hatred at the basis of these attacks” continues to be the “perception of the State of Israel as the bastion of a secular and infidel West”; that’s why every diplomatic effort must tend to reorganize “better and more credible relations of co-existence between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land”. The issue of international terrorism is also addressed by the weekly Spiegel, with an interview of Rohan Gunaratna, author of the influential book “Inside Al Qaida” who believes the organization of Bin Laden “still capable of launching simultaneous mid-range attacks in an area stretching from Africa, to Asia and to the Near East”. Its members are men, he explains, “confirmed in their hatred of the West, which has been strengthened by the American attack on Iraq”. It’s an organization comprising “some 1500 men, but behind them the extremist militia is growing, outside the organization in the strict sense”. The most significant factor is “the availability of human resources deployable with great flexibility on several fronts”. Gunaratna ends by once again “excluding any proof of a link between Al Qaida and the regime of Saddam Hussein”.———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1207 N.ro relativo : 37 Data pubblicazione : 23/05/2003