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America in the Middle East

Gates: 'Moderate' Arab states fear precipitous US-withdrawal from Iraq


By Stan Goodenough
August 01, 2007

Egypt has told senior Bush administration officials it fears what will happen in the Middle East if the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq too soon.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is traveling in the region with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told reporters before leaving Cairo Tuesday the relatively moderate Arab leaders were nervous.

"There clearly is concern on the part of the Egyptians, and I think it probably represents concern elsewhere in the region, that the United States will somehow withdraw precipitously from Iraq, or in some way that is destabilizing to the entire region," he said.

The White House has for months been under intense pressure from the Democrat-led Senate and Congress to bring US forces back home as soon as possible.

Christian Zionists have been among those who have raised their voices in opposition to an early withdrawal.

In May, the director of the Jerusalem-based International Christian Zionist Center, Jan Willem van der Hoeven, traveled to Washington where he met with both Republican and Democrat senators and congressmen to warn of the "disastrous" consequences should the Democrats get their way.

Iran - which actively assists the insurgency in Iraq - is expected to move rapidly to fill any vacuum left by a departing United States and consolidate its grip on Iraq, taking control of its massive oil resources, Van der Hoeven said.

Egypt understands that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his allies will sell a US withdrawal as a massive victory for Islam, and will bring massive pressure to bear on Cairo and the other "moderate" Arab capitals to turn hard against Israel and the West.

Russia's Vladimir Putin is meanwhile working to prepare for this development, aligning himself closely with Tehran and Damascus.

Analysts believe Putin sees himself as a new czar and that he wants to restore Moscow's influence to USSR-levels in the Middle East.

A number of Bible scholars interpret prophecies to foretell that Russia and Iran will lead an alliance of forces against Israel in the "end times."

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