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Nov 09, 2004
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Denver, Colorado Journalist Shaker Nabulsi: America's Interest is Stability in the Middle East

#356 | 03:04
Source: Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar)

The following are excerpts from an interview with Arab-American journalist Shaker Nabulsi from Denver, Colorado:

Shaker Nabulsi: We speak as though America is on another planet and has no interest in the Palestinian issue, the Arabs, or their interests. America safeguards Arab interests because they are a part of its own interests. It does not do so out of mercy or love for the Arabs, but rather in order to safeguard its own interests. When America strives to bring stability and democracy to the region, this entails peace and security for America.

Who was it that drew America beyond its borders after 9/11? It was us. It was we who brought it to Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and to the whole Middle East. It was we who drew America out of its borders. It hadn't gone out beyond its borders like this since WWII. Why? Because we went to New York and carried out explosions and said to America: "Please, come to the Middle East so that we can settle our accounts here." We brought America to the Middle East. America didn't come by itself.

The Palestinian issue is being treated in a politically unrealistic manner. The only one to with politically realistic logic was Mahmoud Abbas, when he said that the Palestinian issue is a political problem, and that it must be resolved politically. What happened to Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian cause afterwards? This is political realism. Things must be resolved in realistic political ways. As for the slogans, emotional speech, illusions, and political fabrications – these don't solve anything. The world today has completely changed and we must change together with the world. Political thinking has changed since the fifties and the sixties.

Mr. Faysal, we are still speaking the language of the cold war, as though the USSR still exists, as though the Berlin Wall is still standing, as though there is another superpower. The world has changed, and we haven't.

Today the Iraqis are not fighting in Iraq. Who is fighting in Iraq? You and I and any informed person knows who is fighting the Americans now in Iraq. The Iraqis are not the ones fighting. Arabs, Iranians, and others, even from Latin America, came to Iraq in order to settle an account with the Americans.

Interviewer: Very good.

Shaker Nabulsi: Mr. Faysal, I ask myself how long are we going to bury our heads in the sand like giraffes? How long? We must admit the truth. Who was it that foiled the American project in Iraq? It was the Arab regimes! Because the Arab regimes are not willing to see replays of the Iraqi film in any other Arab state.

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