The Iranian press called Saturday for the immediate shipment of arms to the Palestinians and blasted other Muslim nations for not doing more to stand up to Israel.
"A whole nation of defenseless Palestinian Muslims is under bombardment from air, land and sea," the conservative Kayhan International said, referring to the recent explosion of violence in the Middle East.
"The casualty toll is mounting by the hour and even underage children are being brutally murdered. But all we have been hearing for the past fortnight are 'strongly-worded' statements by the lead-footed leaders of the Muslim world."
The paper said the time was over for "emergency talks and meetings. The situation warrants (the) rushing of arms of all kinds, even sophisticated, to occupied Palestine and Lebanon.
"What are we afraid of? Is it the fear of being attacked or perhaps nuked by the Zionists and their godfather the United States?" it asked, saying that arms shipments by other nations would "prove that they are real Muslims instead of flogging the dead horse of peace."
The conservative Tehran Times said Palestinians "have now realized that they can regain their rights only through general uprising and armed struggle against the Zionist occupiers."
The reformist Iran News said the current crisis "shall definitely prove the making or the unmaking of the young leaders of the region such as King Abdullah of Jordan or (President) Bashar al-Assad of Syria."
It asked whether the latest violence "could be simply blamed on the Clinton administration" or was rooted in the "overt contradictions between the role Washington plays as the world's only superpower" on the one hand and the "need ... for a new world order" on the other – TEHRAN (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
