The terror attacks in Paris have been perceived with great sadness throughout the Arab region, leaving France in grief and the world mourning.
In the Abu Dhabi-based Al Ittihad, the sister newspaper of The National, Abdullah bin Bajjad Al Otaibi said responsibility for the terrorist attacks was wide-ranging.
“Politically speaking, it includes international sluggishness in solving the sizeable political setbacks in the region and, above all other problems, ISIL in Syria and Iraq, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt – and branches of each of those – and narrow political interests in dealing with Iran. This includes closing their eyes to Tehran’s continued and persistent support to all terrorist groups in the region and in the world,” he wrote.
“Following Russia’s intervention in Syria and as the West prepares for efficient intervention, ISIL is starting to see its illusions shattered, realising that it should reconsider its strategy and alliances.
“The targeting of Sinjar by Kurdish forces, with air support from the West, and the targeting of oil refineries under ISIL control has given it a deep sense of fear and an overwhelming sense that the legend it strived to build has been forcefully and brutally crushed.
“There is nothing more dangerous than a blind ideologist who sees his illusions shattering before him.”
The Paris attacks were planned and it was certain there are similar operations planned in more than one other country, to be rolled out at a time deemed propitious by ISIL, he concluded.
In L’Orient Le Jour, the Beirut-based daily, Issa Goraieb wrote that “in the assaulted, humiliated and bereaved tricolour”, one colour stood out.
“It is the red that tragically steals the spotlight. Red, like the pools of blood ruthlessly shed by the terrorists. A red which calls for justice, wishing to understand this surreal night that Paris has undergone, asking to know what tomorrow will bring,” he wrote.
“These attacks perpetrated by suicide bombers are the first of their kind in France. They follow the crash of the Russian Metrojet plane and the twin explosions in the southern suburbs of Beirut. They also announce an era of mass terrorism that aims to kill the largest number of civilians: a barbaric war that deserts the theatres of the Levant, spreading here and there, into the privacy of others.”
Writing in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, Ghassan Charbel said he believed the attacks in Paris were far more dangerous than the equivalent events in New York and Washington.
“Killing people while blankly staring into their petrified gaze is far more terrifying than a plane crashing into a tower. The massacres of Paris were more horrifying than September 11,” he wrote.
“These were brutal and cold-blooded executions that could be replicated in any given capital, for which no planes or pilots were necessary. It is sufficient to have the presence of a handful of wolves, lurking in the dark and drinking from the river of absolute hatred.
“The ‘invasion of Paris’ is the most dangerous of all, for it builds upon the wounds caused by previous attacks and drags the Arab and Muslim communities into conflict with the countries that are hosting them. It is another stone in the project of awakening religious wars – wars of annihilation between civilisations.”
Charbel’s conclusion was to call for a comprehensive ideological approach.
“We must restore universities, schools, mosques, television stations and websites out of the grip of those promoting these ideologies and the annihilation of others. The world must engage in this war sooner rather than later.”
Writing in the Sharjah-based daily Al Khaleej, Meftah Choueib said what happened in Paris 10 months ago, with the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the subsequent global solidarity with the French, is repeating itself after the terror attacks on Friday night.
“The big difference is that the French and European consciences were shot to their core and they are now convinced that new approaches, unprecedented initiatives and painful concessions are necessary in facing the terrorist threat,” he wrote.
The attacks reopened wounds that were already bleeding from cross-border strikes. The repeated attacks in Paris show that there is “no longer any region in the world immune from this evil and others must stay alert”.
Translated by Carla Mirza
CMirza@thenational.ae
