UPDATE Saudi Amb leaves DC as Lebanon Democratic Struggle Ignored by Media

Lebanon is slowly sinking into a quicksand quagmire swamp as the pro-Syrian President Lahoud protects his paymaster stick-insect Assad from UN prosecution. The street movements in Beirut instigated by Hezbollah terrorists and Christian turncoats are trying to subvert:

The anti-Syrian leaders who control cabinet say the opposition is trying to stage a coup against Siniora's government to derail plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

What's interesting besides the US MSM indifference to the subversion of democracy in a key Middle East state that could serve as a launching pad for nuclear terror into Israel, is the reaction of GCC leaders to the Iranian nuclear menace itself.
The GCC Chief had the following profound observation about:

Iran's growing role in Iraq and its standoff with the West over Tehran's nuclear program, although GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman al-Attiyah said the GCC states do not feel threatened by the Islamic republic.

"The United States talks openly of the danger of Iranian military activity in the region, but our countries do not feel threatened by Tehran. Iranian officials assure us that their nuclear program is peaceful," Attiyah said.

Whew! Now we can rest easy in our sleep, as can the Israelis. Abdulrahman has assured us there's nothing to worry about. But King Abdullah actually noticed something a bit awry about the situation in the Middle East:

"Our Arab region is besieged by a number of dangers, as if it was a powder keg waiting for a spark to explode," he told the rulers of the oil-rich monarchies gathered in Riyadh for a two-day meeting to the backdrop of mounting sectarian violence in neighboring Iraq.

The Palestinians were reeling from "a hostile and ugly occupation" by Israel while the international community watched their "bloody tragedy like a spectator," Abdullah said.

But "most dangerous for the (Palestinian) cause is the conflict among brethren," he said in a reference to the differences between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah faction and the Islamist Hamas movement that have blocked the formation of a unity government.

In Iraq "a brother is still killing his brother," Abdullah said of the tit-for-tat killings between the Sunni Arab former elite and the ruling Shiite majority.

Abdullah also warned that Lebanon, which was rocked by civil war in 1975-1990, risked sliding into renewed civil strife as a result of the current standoff between pro- and anti-Syrian camps. "In Lebanon, we see dark clouds threatening the unity of the homeland, which risks sliding again into... conflict among the sons of the same country," he said.

Oh yeah! The West watches without rushing to help the Palestinians, who will not recognize and have vowed to destroy a member of the United Nations and a country that the Saudis themselves recently offered to recognize in the 2002 Ta'if proposals. And Hamas gunmen kill three kids from 3 to 9 years old because they are the children of the PA President Abbas.

How is this the West's fault? Except that Condi Rice had been gulled into allowing Hamas to participate in West Bank elections, which surprised everybody by electing a bunch of terrorists to "govern" legislatively.

But Kofi Annan ignores the rejection of the UN investigation of the Hariri murder last year and points fingers at the USA for 1] interceding militarily in Iraq and 2] NOT interceding militarily in Darfur.

CLUE TO THE ABOVE: The Middle East's a jigsaw puzzle, and most of the parts just don't fit with each other!

Just to make the pot begin the transition from a simmer to a boil, the report comes from Washington that long-time Saudi intelligence chief Turki al-Faisal has abruptly departed DC and headed back to Riyadh to "spend more time with his family" which in reality means lobbying for the job of Foreign Minister his ailing brother Saud is about to relinquish.

[Boring anecdote: In the most embarrassing moment of my foreign service career, I was translating between the American Ambassador and then-Crown Prince Abdullah and although I could translate the stuttering Abdullah easily to the US Ambassador, the Crown Prince said he couldn't quite understand my Arabic which had deteriorated in long conversations with my Sudanese houseboy. Turki Faisal was head of intelligence and miraculously appeared and said, "it's okay, Dave, I can take over" and proceeded to rescue the conversation.]

This is good news for the USA, as Turki is an Anglo-Americanophile, if he can get the job. But there are other candidates who reflect the views of the strange GCC SecGen waiting in the wings, and hopefully Turki will be able to outmanoeuver them.