CAIRO, Aug 10: US threats against Iraq are part of a wider conspiracy against the Arab world evidenced in US support for Israel and its sponsorship of a peace deal that threatens to divide Sudan, the leading Egyptian daily Al-Ahram charged Saturday.

“Plots are being hatched before our eyes, in the south, in the east and in the west,” complained the state-run daily’s leader-writer Massud al-Henawi, voicing mounting frustration at Washington’s failure to heed Arab concerns.

“The main objective now is to stir up each area and provoke fresh crises to preempt any solution of the real problems of the (Arab) nation,” Henawi wrote, calling for a “strong and united position” from Arab states in the “face of the dangers and challenges.”

The columnist mocked Washington’s stated reasons for involvement in both Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The issue is no longer the return of UN inspectors to Iraq, which Washington is determined to attack, regardless of the opposition of most of its European allies, of the disruption it will cause to Arab states and of Baghdad’s agreement to discuss the abandonment of the remainder of its weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

“The issue is no longer the Palestinians who are shedding their blood every day and facing blockade, destruction and murder.

“If fire breaks out in either of these parts (of the Arab nation), the entire world will get burned,” he warned.

Henawi reiterated Egyptian anger over its exclusion from US-backed peace talks in Kenya which led to a breakthrough agreement between Khartoum and southern rebels of the People’s Liberation Army.

“An agreement has been imposed on the two sides paving the way for the country’s division,” wrote the columnist.—AFP