Reuters: Middle East leaders paint 'dark picture' at Rome conference
ROME (Reuters) - When Italy organized a conference focused on the Middle East, the Gulf and North Africa, it promised to look beyond the turmoil roiling the region and instead promote a “positive agenda”.
But many of the 45 heads of state, ministers and business leaders who attended the event over the past three days saw little future cheer.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, captured the gloom, bemoaning “a lack of wisdom” in the region, with “no hope” on hand for ordinary people hoping for an end to years of conflict, upheaval and sectarianism.
“Maybe I have presented a dark picture, but it is not as dark as I have explained, it is darker,” said Thani, whose country is suffering an economic blockade by its Arab neighbors, which accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism.
Qatar denies the accusations and the crisis has pushed the tiny, gas-rich state closer to Shi‘ite Muslim Iran, the regional rival to Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia.
The foreign ministers of both Iran and Saudi Arabia addressed the conference, taking turns to trade barbs.
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WNU Editor: A culture of corruption, authoritarianism, tribalism, religious intolerance and extremism, coupled with rigid economic and political structures .... with no real political or societal will to change it .... so yes .... a bleak picture it definitely is.
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