Middle East Policy

In a meaningful step, the U.S. has decided to aid Syrian democracy groups through its Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) established by President Bush in 2002 to promote reform in the Middle East. I can read this move as a qualitative step in the U.S. policy toward the Syrian Ba'athist regime, which got furious by this move. This U.S. offer, I believe, has symbolic nature rather than practical. It has been intended to be a clear message to the Syrian regime and a reminder of the many U.S. options still unemployed. The regional implications and context must not be absent in reading this U.S. step. The U.S. has successfully applied the isolation and pressure policy toward the Syrian regime for long months. In spite of the short period, this policy was effective and fruitful at many fronts including the "semi-liberation" of Lebanon. Nevertheless, the U.S. policy toward Syria, in general, is alike a crisis management rather than a comprehensive, integrated and coherent...

Here is a recent policy watch of the U.S. democracy promotion efforts and attitudes: (Source: International Information Programs , U.S. Department of State.) Foreign Affairs Budget Would Foster Freedom, Democracy, Rice Says Secretary of state says U.S. must support principle of democratic processes By David Anthony Denny Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- The Bush administration's proposed budget for fiscal year 2007 aims to support a foreign policy "devoted to the creation of a more hospitable environment for the forward march of freedom and democracy," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says. The secretary was testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the president’s proposed $31.9 billion budget for international operations for fiscal year 2007, which begins October 1. The proposal submitted to Congress would increase the fiscal 2007 spending approximately $3 billion from the amount Congress approved for fiscal year 2006. In opening remarks a...

This is the news section of the current issue of the Arab Reform Bulletin Published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace : Palestine: New Parliament to Convene The new 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council will meet February 18 to debate government formation. Hamas, whose Change and Reform list won 74 seats in addition to four independent seats, is expected to lead. The 45-seat Fatah parliamentary bloc elected MP Azzam Al Ahmad as its leader on February 11. Click here for final results of the January 25 elections released by the Palestinian Central Elections Commission. The Election Cases Court on February 5 dismissed claims by Fatah that electoral violations necessitated new elections in the districts of Salfit, Nablus, Gaza, Khan Younis, and Jerusalem. The court similarly dismissed claims by Hamas that it had won 30 instead of 29 seats at the national level. A preliminary statement released on January 26 by the National Democratic Institute and the Carter Center ...

I, as a Syrian, utterly condemn the barbaric aggression against the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on February 4, 2006 and present my sincere apology to the Danish and Norwegian peoples. I have been shocked by these irresponsible sorrowful incidents. I can assure that the Syrian people, who do not currently enjoy the right of self-determination, would not behave in such manner. These incidents are unique and unfamiliar in the history of the peaceful and hospitable Syrian people, who always stress on the friendship with the Danish, Norwegian and all European and western peoples. Day by day, what I always said on the totalitarianism become more and more obvious. I stress again that the totalitarianism constitutes an integrated and interdependent system including all its various aspects religious and ideological. It embeds, encourages and supports the violence culture and means at the domestic and international level and operates through alliances of convenience employing what...

I want to highlight these two articles in the context of some current biased, short-sighted and politically-motivated information in the media and some think tanks. "Happy Days!" By Robert Kagan, William Kristol The Weekly Standard, December 26, 2005 The purple ink on 11 million Iraqi fingers had not yet dried after an unprecedented, almost miraculous exercise in democratic freedom--and already there were querulous American critics working hard to make light of the whole thing. "Experts Cautious in Assessing Iraqi Election," ran the headline on a Friday Washington Post story by Robin Wright; "High Turnout, Low Violence a Positive Step, but Not a Turning Point, Analysts Say." And indeed, the indefatigable Ms. Wright had telephoned her usual cast of sour experts, each of whom was eager to help explain why, whatever else it might be, the peaceful election of a national assembly for a fully self-governing Arab democracy was Not a Turning Point. Elsewhere in th...

The liberals and democratic reformers in the Middle East are encouraged and strengthened by the State of the Union address by President Bush. Our long-awaited dreams have the chance now to become real. And we will not accept less than freedom, democracy and peace in the Middle East. President Bush is not just an idealist; he is a realist too. He realistically understands that freedom, democracy and consequently security must be for all or they will be threatened where they are. He knows that the only sustainable way to protect America and the American freedom and prosperity is the international system of freedom. He also knows clearly – although many Americans are still not – that the other's isolationism had brought the 9/11 to America in its powerful age with thousands of Americans had been murdered on the American land by some terrorist thugs. To defeat terror in the world you must defeat totalitarianism, which uses every violent means including terror to fight freedom and the f...

On the misleading term "exporting democracy," which is used frequently by the American media and some think tanks, I have found an interesting related material written by Professor R.J. Rummel on his blog . I have previously commented on this term from a Middle Eastern perspective in an earlier post pointing out how much this term is misleading and, in reality, makes no sense. It is actually used to transmit a hidden implication targeting the U.S. administration's achievements and policies in this regard. I will quote here the Rummel's post as an American view on this subject: Not Imposed—Freedom’s a Right By Professor R.J. Rummel President Bush’s Inauguration speech has generated a lot of commentary, some excellent, some helpful, but on the average it is the predictable stuff from the liberal and left wing press squeezed into and sometimes overlapping with “news” on what those so-called “militants” are doing with their car bombings and murders of Iraqi civilians. By...

Here are the recent U.S. initiatives and attitudes concerning democracy promotion, especially in the Middle East. (Source: International Information Programs , U.S. Department of State.) New Challenges Call for New Diplomatic Strategies, Rice Says Transformational diplomacy promotes democracy through partnerships By Rebecca Ford Mitchell Washington File Staff Writer Washington – A more integrated world with global threats -- terrorism, weapons proliferation, diseases, and trafficking in persons and drugs -- requires new diplomatic strategies, says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Speaking at Georgetown University in Washington January 18, Rice said the United States is now engaged in transformational diplomacy, which means working with foreign citizens to help them “build and sustain democratic, well-governed states that will respond to the needs of their people and conduct themselves responsibly in the international system.” “Let me be clear,” she added. “Transformational diplomac...