Word: arabize
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...Western and Arab diplomats say that Saudi Arabia is actively canvassing support for the initiative among regional players and Security Council members. This week, President Hosni Mubarak and Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul flew into Riyadh to discuss the plan with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Without confirming the details of the initiative, Abdullah told reporters that he believed war would be avoided. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal also refused to comment on the initiative, saying only that Arab states want a final opportunity to seek a diplomatic solution...
...Turkey and Iran. They see a coup as offering a better chance of maintaining order and preserving state institutions necessary for providing public services such as security, health care, electricity and water. "They are trying to stage manage the removal of Saddam," says a Western diplomat. "The level of Arab anxiety about the war is sky high...
...Saudi initiative envisions a reformed Iraqi regime including some faces from among the exile community but composed mainly of the remnants of the outgoing system. "What does 'a change of regime' mean," says an Arab diplomat. "Getting rid of the Baath Party, the Revolutionary Guards, the governors and the police forces? Or is it Saddam Hussein? If it is Saddam Hussein, then the best way to deal with the problem is for Saddam to be targeted with his clique, but leave the administration as it is and divide him from his backup. If the Security Council tells the Iraqis...
...Arab leaders, say diplomats, are also motivated by a fear that the U.S. may lack the stomach for nation-building in a turbulent post-Saddam Iraq. Arab leaders have no faith in the exiled Iraqi opposition, and fear that the horse-trading necessary to build a new regime from scratch would create a system too fragile to survive. "If things go wrong, the troops will get back on their ships and leave," says an Arab diplomat. "We in the region will be left with the consequences. It will be a never-ending story...
...Arab diplomats are expecting resistance from the Bush Administration, which could have reason to fear that the Saudi initiative is little more than an Arab tactic to buy Saddam more time. Some Western diplomats in the region, however, believe the initiative may dovetail with U.S. thinking. "Politically, there would be nothing better for President Bush than to remove Saddam and disarm Iraq without firing a shot," says a Western diplomat. "All along, Washington's hope has been that as pressure gets high enough, the people around Saddam will take matters into their own hands...