'Current crisis will create new generation of Arabs'

In a lecture at Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up, Ahmed Ramadan, Director-General of Quds Press International Agency, said that what happened in the Arab region due to the American war on Iraq and the consequent suffering and disasters may lead to the birth of a new Arab generation.

This, he said, may help create a new Arab society capable of understanding the mechanisms of the conflict, and that knows how to deal with the new reality facing the Arabs.

He affirmed that the Arab world, with its great cultural and economic potentials, would be able to triumph over all challenges, provided that it adopts a clear-cut strategy or vision, based on its social, historical and political components. It is also of paramount importance, he stressed, to be realistic in the cooperation and solidarity among the Arabs, beginning with simple and easier things.

He stressed the necessity to involve experts and political analysts in the process of decision-making in the Arab countries, pointing out to the role of research centres in this regard.

"The scope of decision-making circle in the Arab world is narrow, and this is why the decisions are taken rather randomly," he noted.

In another context, he criticised the performance of the Arab media in covering the war on Iraq where they focused on less important issues, eg. the discovery of graveyards, at the expense of the more urgent issues like poor conditions of hospitals, lack of medicines, and so on.

Concerning whether there is a connection between the announcement of SARS disease and the war on Iraq, Mr Ramadan said that regardless of such a connection, the epidemic had been well exploited against the Chinese economy, as part of the economic competition between America and China.