CAIRO, 1 March 2004 — Syria joined Saudi Arabia and Egypt in opposing Washington’s plan for political and other reforms in the Middle East, according to an interview published yesterday.
“Our position is that we don’t want any reform project to be dictated to us from abroad. Reforms must spring from the specifics of the region and not through the diktats of external forces,” Syrian Information Minister Ahmad Al-Hassan told the London-based daily Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat.
“No regime would accept the implementation of reforms under external pressure or diktats from abroad.” Saudi Arabia and Egypt said last week the Arab world was going through its own reforms and would reject any change imposed from outside. They were reacting to Washington’s Greater Middle East Initiative, which proposes funding for projects which would promote free elections, civil society, the empowerment of women and the modernization of education.
Relations between Syria and the United States have been strained for years because of US support for Israel and US complaints about the presence in Damascus of Lebanese and Palestinian groups.
Hassan defended Syria’s emergency laws on the grounds that part of the country, the Golan Heights, is under Israeli occupation. The laws, in force since 1963, give the security authorities wide powers of detention.
“There is no country to the world which has part of its territory under occupation that does not have exceptional laws that might be used if its security is at risk,” he said.
The US State Department, in its annual human rights report released last week, said members of the Syrian security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses in 2003.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, arriving in Cairo yesterday for Arab League meetings, also objected to the Greater Middle East Initiative.
