IRAQ: Arab commentators and officials called on Iraqis to show restraint yesterday and not to be drawn into a conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims that might spread beyond Iraq's borders.
Clerics from both sects have called for calm, while Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said he commended the responsible positions of leaders who were confronting attempts to incite strife.
Unlike Iraq and Bahrain, where Shias are the majority, Sunnis dominate most Arab states. But there are sizeable Shia groups in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. In Lebanon, Shias are the single largest community.
"The real danger is to see Iraq split or partitioned. The more we see this sort of violence, the more we fear for the other Arab countries," said Mohamed el-Sayed Said of Egypt's Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. He said militant Sunni groups, some of which hold radical beliefs that Shias are not proper Muslims, were seeking to stir up sectarian conflict in Iraq and beyond.
A newspaper in the United Arab Emirates said the government of Shia prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari had not done enough to heal sectarian rifts.
But some, like Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, blamed US occupation for Iraq's troubles. "The occupiers . . . should be held responsible for the insecurities in that country," he said.