Although I often disagree with Middle Eastern newspapers, and with newspapers based in traditional, extremist, overly conservative Muslim countries in general, I do believe it’s important for us Westerners to read newspapers from those countries; we need to understand how the people in those countries think, and how their governments try to influence them. Additionally it has to be pointed out that although those newspapers and peoples are often anti-American, that does not mean that they are wrong every time they accuse the US of wrongdoing.

Case in point, this op-ed in the Tehran Times:

At the last moment, when Lebanese groups were about to reach an agreement on the makeup of a unity cabinet, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut protested openly at the way ministerial posts were being divided between the March 14 and the March 8 groups and thus delayed the formation of the new government.

This intervention has stoked up the tension between the two centers of power in Lebanon and encouraged the March 14 group to ask for more ministerial posts.

The U.S. move showed its utter disregard for the Doha agreement and proved that the United States and certain Arab countries do not want to see the Lebanon crisis resolved based on the blueprint mapped out at the Doha meeting…

But since the United States and some Arab leaders don’t want to see the political crisis resolved, they have set certain conditions, such as including their people in the new cabinet, and thus have tied the hands of the prime minister, who must select people who will be acceptable for all political factions.

Hezbollah and its allies are not very concerned about the precise makeup of the cabinet but believe that the nation can only be united and the cabinet can only be successful if ministerial posts are given to people who are acceptable and cooperative.

At the Doha meeting, 16 ministries were allocated to the Mach 14 group, 11 to the opposition, and 3 to the president. Yet, the March 14 faction is now demanding that unacceptable and uncooperative figures be appointed to the cabinet as their precondition for joining the new government, with the aim of creating headaches for the Islamic resistance movement.

[I]f the U.S. keeps meddling in the efforts to establish a new Lebanese cabinet and the March 14 group does not back down from its demand for more key ministries and halt its efforts to monopolize political power, there will be a new crisis in Lebanon and we will be back to square one.

Obviously, being a Western hawk, I support the approach of the US in general. However, whenever the West does something, it has to keep in mind that its enemies may use it against them (us). Additionally, we always have to keep in mind what other peoples think when we do something, even when that ’something’ appears ‘right’ to us.

That does not mean that we should change (all) our policies, but it can mean that our actions may sometimes result in severe counterreactions with downsides that are not worth the benefits of the initial action.