Egyptian expert says post-9/11 Mideast more volatile

Hassan Nafaa, Head of the Political Science Department of prestigious Cairo University, has said that post-9/11 U.S. foreign policies in the Middle East have made the region, and the world at large, more volatile and unstable. "Both the whole world and the Middle East region are more volatile and instable and more prone to terror attacks. More terrorism has risen from post-9/11 U.S. polices," Nafaa said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Nafaa, also a member of Egypt's foreign affairs council, said that the Islamic world, particularly the Arab world, has found itself in a more dangerous and volatile situation as Iraq is witnessing daily violence and endless bloodshed.

After the U.S. fought the war on terror, the cities with international background such as London and Madrid were hit by terror attacks, which proved that the world was more volatile, said Nafaa.

"While the U.S. supposes it has achieved many scores from its war against terrorism, the Arab world believes the U.S. has failed in the anti-terror war given today's situation in the Middle East and the whole world at large," he said.

On Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers commandeered four U.S. airliners to launch terror attacks on U.S. territories, during which two crashed into the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York and one into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., while the fourth crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving some 3,000 people dead and causing huge economic losses.

Most people in the Arab and Islamic world, according to Nafaa, didn't show much sympathy towards al-Qaida and its chief Osama bin Laden or agree on what al-Qaida did on Sept. 11 of 2001.

"They don't oppose U.S. plan to eliminate al-Qaida and that's why they don't protest U.S. war on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan even though the war incurred many casualties," he said.

The real problem, however, emerged when the U.S. used the anti- terror war to invade Iraq and toppled the Iraqi regime under former President Saddam Hussein, said Nafaa.

Citing Saddam regime's alleged relations with al-Qaida, the U.S. , along with its allies in Europe, invaded Iraq in March 2003 without sanction from the UN.

To the Arab world, U.S. invasion into Iraq was baseless, said Nafaa. "People in the Arab and Islamic world believe that the U.S. is making use of the anti-terror war to change the religion, educational and cultural system in the Middle East," he said.

The public opinion in the region has significantly changed in the last five years as a result of U.S. war on terror and U.S. protection policies for Israel, Nafaa said.

He noted that U.S. foreign policies in Middle East, including so-called Greater Middle East plan and the New Middle East, were intended to remake the geopolitical map in the region to the benefits of U.S. interest, which runs contrary to what people in the region are hoping for.

Source: Xinhua