Turkey witnesses some of the most passionate demonstrations in support of Gaza
Gaza has opened a gulf between Arab people and their regimes, the clerics say
"Gaza gives us power, it solves our differences... Palestine is a legitimate theatre of operations for jihad" - Mohsen al-Awajy, Saudi religious scholar
At a weekend meeting in Istanbul, 200 religious scholars and clerics met senior Hamas officials to plot a new jihad centred on Gaza.
The BBC's Bill Law was the only Western journalist at the meeting.
Page last updated at 19:01 GMT, Tuesday, 17 February 2009
In a hall crowded with conservative Sunni Muslim sheikhs and scholars, in a hotel close to Istanbul's Ataturk Airport speaker after speaker called for jihad against Israel in support of Hamas.
The choice of Turkey was significant. Arab hardliners were keen to put aside historic differences with the Turks.
As one organiser put it: "During the past 100 years relations have been strained but Palestine has brought us together."
Many delegates spoke appreciatively of the protest by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who stormed out of a Davos debate on Gaza two weeks ago.
The conference, dubbed the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign, also gave impetus to Sunni clerics concerned about the growing power of Hezbollah, the Shia movement backed by Iran, which rose to international prominence in its own war with Israel in 2006.
"Gaza is a gift," the Saudi religious scholar Mohsen al-Awajy told me. He and other delegates repeatedly referred to the Gaza war as "a victory".
"Gaza," he continued, "gives us power, it solves our differences. We are all now in a unified front against Zionism."
In closed meetings after sessions delegates focussed on the creation of a "third Jihadist front" - the first two being Afghanistan and Iraq. The intensity of the Israeli attack had "awakened all Muslims," Mr Awajy claimed.
"Palestine is a legitimate theatre of operations for jihad (holy war)," he added.
Road to liberation
Mohammed Nazzal, a senior Hamas leader based in Damascus, challenged Arab governments to "open their borders and allow the fighters to come."
Delegates from all over the Middle East, and from Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia applauded as he stabbed the air with a raised finger and declared: "There will be no agreement with Israel... only weapons will bring respect."
Mr Nazzal told his audience: "Don't worry about casualties."
The 23 days of bombardment of Gaza, in which some 1,300 people, many of them civilians and nearly 300 of them children, are believed to have died, was "just the beginning" of the struggle, Mr Nazzal said.
To laughter in the audience, another speaker noted that twice as many babies were born as children were killed during the war.
Every death, I was told, was a martyrdom on the road to liberation.
For the hardline sheikhs, it was an opportunity to underline what they see as the growing gulf between Arab regimes who are hesitant to back Hamas and the people of the region who, they say, embrace Hamas as heroes fighting against overwhelming odds.
More importantly, this conference represented something of a coup for Hamas. They were promised weapons, money and fighters.
The question remains whether such rhetoric can or will be translated into action. Israel keeps a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip, where Hamas exercises de facto control, and Israel's other borders are also heavily guarded.
But at the very least this statement of intent from Sunni hardliners poses new challenges, not just to the Israelis and to Western efforts to broker a peace deal but to Arab regimes as well.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama, facing a mounting political crisis in Iran, is increasingly relying on the counsel of a career diplomat who has been a staunch supporter of tough measures to curtail Tehran's nuclear program.
The emergence of Middle East specialist Dennis Ross as a presidential confidant is being scrutinized in Washington for its potential impact on Mr. Obama's approach to Tehran, as the nuclear issue and electoral crisis play out.
Mr. Obama has committed himself to direct talks with Tehran, but has said the U.S. should keep all options on the table to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. He also has said the Iranian regime can be expected to be hostile to the U.S., regardless of who is declared president.
Mr. Ross is about to move to the White House from the State Department, where he served as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's point man on Iran. In his writings and speeches, he has argued for a direct U.S. outreach to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, something White House officials say they have considered.
Mr. Ross has also argued for crippling sanctions, and potentially military action, if Tehran doesn't come to the negotiating table over the nuclear program, which the U.S. says is intended to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. Mr. Ross didn't respond to requests to comment for this article.
The White House says his move there will strengthen the National Security Council and is an indication of the pre-eminence Mr. Obama is placing on the Iran issue. Two administration officials said Mr. Ross would maintain his role overseeing Iran policy while also providing Mr. Obama with advice on broader Mideast issues.
"Ross has been the point man on Iran, so his input is important," said Michael Adler, an expert on Iran's nuclear program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
The varied U.S. personalities working on Iran have left some in Washington guessing as to who is coordinating overall strategy. William Burns, the State Department's No. 3 diplomat, is overseeing negotiations with the international community on Iran's nuclear program. Richard Holbrooke, Mr. Obama's point man on Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been engaging Iranian officials on ways to cooperate in Central Asia.
Mr. Ross's only high-profile mission was a May trip to the Mideast where he sought to forge a common approach among the Persian Gulf states on Iran policy.
Mideast analysts said Mr. Ross has a short time to galvanize an international response to Iran's nuclear program. European and Arab diplomats who have worked with the career diplomat said they have set a target date of the late September convening of the United Nations General Assembly to assess whether Iran is serious about negotiations over its nuclear program. Advancing negotiations, these diplomats said, could be complicated by Iran's current political turmoil.
Mr. Obama has said he should know by year-end if Tehran is going to engage in diplomacy. The administration has committed to exacting extensive new sanctions against Tehran if it doesn't give ground on its nuclear program -- though it remains unclear if Mr. Ross and other American diplomats will be able to gain the cooperation of Russia and China.
Former U.S. officials who have worked with Mr. Ross said he could prove to be an effective ally of Mr. Obama's in managing Washington's prickly relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Ross developed close ties to Israel's leadership during more than a decade of work aimed at forging an Arab-Israeli peace agreement.
An Obama administration official said the president developed a personal relationship with Mr. Ross during last year's presidential campaign, and wanted him at the White House. The official said Mr. Ross's move is the latest in a series of hires that have brought key officials into the executive office, from health policy to energy.
Mr. Ross was a latecomer to Mr. Obama's campaign, but helped write a number of Mr. Obama's key foreign policy speeches, said Obama campaign staff, and worked to galvanize a Jewish-American community that was skeptical of the candidate's pro-Israel credentials.
—Jonathan Weisman contributed to this article. Write to Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com
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