AMMAN, 4 March 2004 — A senior US envoy here yesterday defended Washington’s initiative to bolster democracy in the Arab world, saying its aim was to support changes on the ground rather than impose reforms.
US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman made the remarks following talks with Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal Al-Fayez, shortly after arriving from Egypt.
“I described to the prime minister our view that the best ideas for reform come from the region, and the idea somehow that the United States and other countries will impose a plan or impose ideas on a country like Jordan is simply wrong,” he said.
“Our job is not to come here and say here is a plan. Our job, is to listen, learn and to see what the possibilities are for the United States to support efforts for reform in the area,” he told reporters.
A statement from Faisal’s office quoted the prime minister as telling Grossman that “reform must come from within and based on our Arab and Islamic civilizations and the Muslim religion.”
Grossman is on a regional tour to discuss Washington’s “Greater Middle East” initiative for economic and political reforms in Arab and Muslim countries. He has already been to Morocco and will visit also Bahrain and Turkey.
Grossman on Tuesday said Turkey, a non-Arab Muslim country, could serve as a “very important model for the region”.
“Turkey is a place where it is possible to be very democratic and Islamic. Turkey is a place where it is possible to have connections to the West and to the rest of the world,” he said.
“And the great effort that Turks have made over the years to modernize their society and to give their citizens rights and dignity I think are really important,” he added.
Washington hopes to launch the initiative, which it says will bolster democracy in the Middle East, during a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations in June.
But several Arab countries have criticized the initiative, fearing Washington wants to impose its own cultural models on the region.
Arab countries also insist that the United States must help find a settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict to improve the atmosphere for reform in the region.
At a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo yesterday, Jordan, following the example of Egypt, submitted a counter-initiative to the US plan stressing that Arab countries pledge to continue down the road to reform.
It also insisted on an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
Qatar criticized Arab states for rejecting the US initiative before knowing its contents.
“We must not reject something that we don’t know about,” said Qatari Foreign Minister Hamed ibn Jassem ibn Jaber Al-Thani, on the sidelines of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers.
“If this initiative contains positive points, we have to be associated with that, and if it contains negative aspects, we have to specify which ones,” the minister, whose country is a close US ally, told a press conference.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa has said “Arab leaders and societies are not opposed to reform,” but any initiative for change should at the same time “work to establish stability in the region.”
“The key to stability in the region is the Palestinian question,” according to Mussa, who added that the Iraqi question should also be addressed in any reform initiative.
Egypt submitted its own counter-initiative to an earlier meeting of Arab foreign ministers on Monday, while it stressed the need to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to improve the atmosphere for reform.
