Al Jazeera urges US to provide level playing field to all channels

A NON-BIASED coverage of the Middle East in America, a shift towards democracy in the region, the rising pro-American sentiment in the urban Iranian population, US’ mistakes in Iraq and the inclusion of all regional parties to solve the Iraq crisis were the issues raised at a panel discussion on ‘America’s Role in the Middle East’.

The panel, consisting of ambassadors and academics, took up the issues as part of a wider discussion on America and the Middle East after the Bush Presidency: A view from the outside.

The meeting was organized by the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q) at the Al Sharq Village on Wednesday evening.

Earlier in the day, a different panel discussed relations between the United States and the Middle East after Bush’s departure in January 2009.

Former US undersecretary for political affairs, and career ambassador Thomas Pickering delivered the keynote address at the end of the panel discussions.

Mehran Kamrava, chairman of CIRS, chaired the second panel, consisting of four members.

Head of journalistic ethics department at Al Jazeera, Jaafar Abbas, discussed ‘Al Jazeera and US Foreign Policy: An Insider’s View’ and called for a level playing field offered to all TV channels, regardless of their coverage.

Abbas pointed out that, although banned for airing in the US, the channel had 4mn subscribers in Europe within a month of its launch there.

According to him, the channel has also been constantly vilified by US administration, and was labelled pro-Saddam and a ‘mouth piece of bin Laden’, on the grounds that it was the only channel allowed by the then Taliban government officials to enter Afghanistan.

“But no one questions, why CNN was the only channel allowed lo report from Iraq, after its invasion,” said Abbas.

“Al Jazeera staff has been directly attacked and their hotels bombed, with talk of even bombing the channel’s office in Doha,” said the news­man.

Eldad Pardo, who teaches in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University, vociferously defended the ideals and values that are the basis of the functioning of Israel and spoke on ‘US-Israeli Relations: The View from Jerusalem.’

On relations of Israel with US, Pardo explained that “they are based on similar traits”.

“Both countries are republics, both are democracies, immigrant & refugee countries, with press freedom and these similarities garner strong support from within the US,” he said.

Drawing a parallel, Pardo pointed out: “Now in rest of the Middle East, countries are close to the EU, but still different culturally and traditionally, in that they have family and tribal systems stiII existent with nationalism and religion playing important role as well.” He hoped for a greater pan-Arab unity as the solution to the issue.

Mehran Kamrava, who is also the Director of CIRS, spoke on ‘The United States and Iran: The View from Tehran’; and explained the multitude of views in Tehran between different factions of reformists, conservatives and the radicals.

His assessment held the refusal of radicals, who are in the office, as the stumbling block, that should pave the way towards better understanding between the hardliners and the US government and hardliners and Iranian public as well.

“Until then, there will continue to be a chasm between the concerned parties,” he conclud­ed.

Assistant professor in International Affairs at Qatar University, Steven Wright focused on ‘The US and the View from the Gulf’ in his discussion and called on better understanding of the complexity of the regional political situation by US, who according to him seems “unwilling to accept the informal Gulf Political process.

“US is wrong to press for premature change, which risks creating instability in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain and others,” said Professor Wright.

Thomas Pickering, the distinguished ambassador, said: “The range of possible solutions to the regional turmoil has to have a regional aspect, with a general agreement between all the parties - between ethnicities and sects and others.”

On Iraq Pickering suggest: “The four regional parties, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran & Syria should work towards the security and stability of Iraq, because if Iraq doesn’t succeed in the long-term, others will fail.”

On Iran’s nuclear issue, Pickering recommended: ”The level of inspection in Iran can be increased with participation of other countries.”

“The Middle East has been fraught with conflicts, misunderstanding and internal turmoil for years, but, nevertheless, the answer lies in better diplomacy and accommodation of views,” concluded Pickering.