Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa said in remarks published on Sunday that the United States was jeopardizing its interests in the Middle East by not pressing Israel to release Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
King Hamad likened the current Palestinian-Israeli violence to the September 11 attacks on American cities and urged the United States to take a more balanced approach in the region.
"There is no doubt that when the U.S. Secretary of State meets the besieged President of Palestine...and leaves him without any solution, the prestige and status of the United States in the region and the world are not enhanced," the official Bahrain News Agency quoted King Hamad as saying. "This may also deeply hurt its (United States) interests," he said.
King Hamad said the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was destabilizing the whole region and that this would also harm U.S. interests in this oil-rich part of the world.
"Everybody knows that the Palestinians are the victims of a full-scale war by Israel which exploits American support in a manner that does not serve U.S. interests," he said. "There can be no stability in this vital part of the world as long as there is...unequal treatments of the parties involved." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
