Some of the strain is starting to show among our Arab "friends."

Sheikh Ahmed stormed out into a media scrum. As panicky Qatari security guards tried to pull the cameras away, he proceeded to denounce Iraq and say that time was running out. ?Today the Iraqi regime showed what is really in its heart ? the hatred of its neighbours. Now it will take a miracle to stop what is happening and we are not living in an age when miracles take place.?

Looks like at least some of them can see the handwriting on the wall.

They have some samples of past intramural abuse as well:

Arab summit, 1970: Colonel Muammar Gaddafi on inviting King Hussein of Jordan: ?What?s the use of getting him? He?s crazy. Isn?t his father in an asylum in Istanbul??

August 1999: Mustafa Tlas, Syrian Defence Minister ?The difference between Yassir Arafat and a stripper is that she becomes more beautiful with every piece of clothing she removes; Arafat gets more ugly with every concession he makes to Israel?

Arab summit May 1989: Tariq Aziz addressing Farouk Charaa, the Syrian Foreign Minister ?The honorable minister, the demagogue and the liar"
Mr Charaa replied, calling Aziz ?his excellency, the minister and terrorist?

Boy, I thought that Arabic was supposed to be such a flowery and eloquent language. Tim Blair can come up with much better insults than this. The comparison between Arafat and the stripper was particularly lame. Maybe they come out better in Arabic.

Perhaps they can hire Cyrano de Bergerac's evil twin?