Saddam's Lead Balloon

What's an axis of evil to do? Named by United States President George W. Bush as prime enemies, Iran, Iraq and North Korea have gone about trying to improve their perilous positions in a dangerous world.

North Korean leaders have chosen bombast and bluster as their weapons, and Iran fights back with diplomacy in Europe. Only Iraq has chosen a more threatening weapon – oil.

But key Arab states, sympathetic to Iraq and especially to the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel, have rejected a call by Iraq’s ruling Baath Party to coordinate pressure against the United States by exerting oil power.

Delegates at a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said such a strategy could be counterproductive in persuading the international community to force an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said Tuesday that all Arab producers would need to back the plan in order to make it work, Reuters reported.

Rising anyway

Oil prices have already jumped above $26 per barrel on fears of the worsening conflict in the Middle East, which could draw the United States into deeper involvement, with the risk of opposition from Arab states.

The catch is, oil cut-off to the US would give trouble to both buyers and their targeted seller.

Kuwait, which last week reportedly reconciled its differences with Iraq over the 1991 Gulf War, said it could not go in for such actions. "How can we support our Palestinian brothers if we do not have revenues?" a Kuwaiti delegate to the OIC told Reuters.

"We have to be realistic when talking about the oil weapon. This is a double-edged sword that will do more harm to us than the United States, both in the short and long term," the delegate said.

Even Iran, Iraq’s fellow member by implication in the "axis of evil", played down the idea though Reuters reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi did support some form of "pressure" on Washington.

Though it fell like a lead balloon, Iraq’s proposal highlighted the outrage felt throughout much of the Arab world regarding Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories, reminding Washington that, for the moment, most Arab states have chosen what they would describe as policies of restraint.