Thursday, February 2, 2006
Bill Clinton Praised by Iran, Arabs
NewsMax - Ex-president Bill Clinton is winning high praise throughout the Arab world for his recent comments condemning anti-Muslim bias and urging dialogue with Hamas - with even Iranian newspapers touting his go-slow approach to that country's nuclear threat.
Citing Clinton's comments as a constructive alternative to President Bush's dire warnings, the state-run Iran News agency reported Thursday:
"Former U.S. President Bill Clinton recently opined that America had done injustice to the Iranian people by overthrowing the democratically elected government of nationalist prime minister Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq through a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1954. Furthermore, Clinton urged the U.S. government to engage Iran and added that the only way to resolve the nuclear dispute is through negotiations."
In the last few weeks, the ex-president has gone out of his way to try to downplay comments from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Speaking in Jerusalem in November, Clinton acknowledged that the remark was "outrageous," but he cautioned that the Iranian leader was "not elected because of his hatred for Israel or the West."
"He was elected because of the economic distress of ordinary Iranians, and which he promised to relieve by giving them financial assistance," the ex-president insisted, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Clinton warned Israel not to act unilaterally when reacting to terrorist threats, saying that "true peace and security can only come through principled compromise."
The former president's remarks on Monday at an economic conference in Doha, Qatar are also winning high praise.
Clinton took pains to condemn a series of cartoons appearing in European newspapers that parodied the Islamic prophet Mohammed, calling them "appalling."
"So now what are we going to do? ... Replace the anti-Semitic prejudice with anti-Islamic prejudice?" he told the conference.
On Thursday, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak warned that the cartoons could provoke terrorist attacks against the West, but according to the Bahrain News Agency, Mubarak "expressed appreciation of the declarations made by former U.S. President, Bill Clinton."
Clinton's recent performance has prompted glowing press in news outlets not known for their friendly posture towards America.
Yesterday, for instance, Qatar's leading English daily newspaper, The Peninsula, devoted an entire story to an interview with a female Egyptian lawyer who had become a virtual Clinton groupie.
"I am in Doha for the first time and it is here that I met Clinton," Dr. Nariman Abdel Kader told the paper. "A photographer was taking pictures of Clinton and I was standing nearby. The president saw me and asked me to come closer and pose along [with him]. I was so excited. I told him I was a lawyer too, and he laughed and shook hands me."
"I have photographs taken with Kofi Annan and the president of Portugal but have never been as excited as I am now after having met Clinton," she gushed, before adding, "We like him. All Arabs like him. But I hate George Bush and all Arabs hate him."
NewsMax - Ex-president Bill Clinton is winning high praise throughout the Arab world for his recent comments condemning anti-Muslim bias and urging dialogue with Hamas - with even Iranian newspapers touting his go-slow approach to that country's nuclear threat.
Citing Clinton's comments as a constructive alternative to President Bush's dire warnings, the state-run Iran News agency reported Thursday:
"Former U.S. President Bill Clinton recently opined that America had done injustice to the Iranian people by overthrowing the democratically elected government of nationalist prime minister Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq through a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1954. Furthermore, Clinton urged the U.S. government to engage Iran and added that the only way to resolve the nuclear dispute is through negotiations."
In the last few weeks, the ex-president has gone out of his way to try to downplay comments from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Speaking in Jerusalem in November, Clinton acknowledged that the remark was "outrageous," but he cautioned that the Iranian leader was "not elected because of his hatred for Israel or the West."
"He was elected because of the economic distress of ordinary Iranians, and which he promised to relieve by giving them financial assistance," the ex-president insisted, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Clinton warned Israel not to act unilaterally when reacting to terrorist threats, saying that "true peace and security can only come through principled compromise."
The former president's remarks on Monday at an economic conference in Doha, Qatar are also winning high praise.
Clinton took pains to condemn a series of cartoons appearing in European newspapers that parodied the Islamic prophet Mohammed, calling them "appalling."
"So now what are we going to do? ... Replace the anti-Semitic prejudice with anti-Islamic prejudice?" he told the conference.
On Thursday, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak warned that the cartoons could provoke terrorist attacks against the West, but according to the Bahrain News Agency, Mubarak "expressed appreciation of the declarations made by former U.S. President, Bill Clinton."
Clinton's recent performance has prompted glowing press in news outlets not known for their friendly posture towards America.
Yesterday, for instance, Qatar's leading English daily newspaper, The Peninsula, devoted an entire story to an interview with a female Egyptian lawyer who had become a virtual Clinton groupie.
"I am in Doha for the first time and it is here that I met Clinton," Dr. Nariman Abdel Kader told the paper. "A photographer was taking pictures of Clinton and I was standing nearby. The president saw me and asked me to come closer and pose along [with him]. I was so excited. I told him I was a lawyer too, and he laughed and shook hands me."
"I have photographs taken with Kofi Annan and the president of Portugal but have never been as excited as I am now after having met Clinton," she gushed, before adding, "We like him. All Arabs like him. But I hate George Bush and all Arabs hate him."
