| Ephrata
doctor's diplomat in mission to mend gulf crisis Associated
Press
The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle
EPHRATA, Wash. – A small-town doctor who for
eight years has treated patients in this Eastern Washington farming community is now
trying to heal international problems in the Middle East.
Dr. Mohammad Said, a
family physician, spent 15 days in a self-paid trip to the Middle East last month meeting
with what he said were high-placed Iraqi officials and witnessing the aftermath of
Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.
The self-appointed diplomat says he wants to
go back.
"I must talk to Saddam Hussein," Said said in an interview
last week. "I think I could help him to understand ... I want to persuade
him to be more flexible, to tell him how Americans feel about the invasion."
This is
not his first attempt at personal diplomacy. Two years ago, Said traveled to
Geneva, Switzerland, to help draft and promote a resolution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also went to Iran to plead for an end to the
Iran-Iraq war. On his recent trip to occupied Kuwait, he shot videotape for the
Cable News Network.
Born and raised on the Palestinian West Bank, Said is a political activist and an
advocate for Arab Americans in the state Democratic Party. He studied medicine
in Spain and Canada before taking a job in North Dakota. Eight years ago he
moved to Ephrata, where irrigated farmlands remind him of his native Jordan Valley.
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Said says he is frightened that the diplomatic squabble that has ensued since
Iraq invaded Kuwait will soon lead to armed battle involving the United States.
He believes hostilities are rooted in two cultures' refusal to understand each
other.
"There is too much misinformation," Said said.
"President Bush doesn’t understand. Hussein doesn’t
understand. Their positions are hardened. There has to be some
kind of compromise."
Said said the Persian Gulf crisis is an example of
how Western powers pit one Arab nation against another to maintain control over Mideast
oil reserves. While Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was
"unfortunate," he says, the Iraqis have a valid claim to Kuwaiti
territory, based on centuries of history.
He criticized the U.S. position as
"policeman" for the United Nations sanctions, saying it is undermined by
American refusals to support U.N. resolutions calling for Israel to withdraw from the West
Bank and other occupied territories.
Said denies any anti-Semitism. He said he simply hopes to prevent the United States
from jumping into a war in a region that most Americans see only as a source for cheap
oil.
"People feel that if you criticize American intervention, you are
un-American. We got some telephone calls from people who don’t like what I am
saying," Said said.
"But when you talk to people one on-one, they understand
that I am not anti-American; I am just anti-war."
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