"Our commitment to democracy is being tested in the Middle East, " Bush has vowed

WASHINGTON, February 9 (IslamOnline.net) – The Bush administration has launched a new bid to promote democracy in the "greater Middle East" adapting a model used to press for freedoms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, according to a press report Monday, February 9.

Senior White House and State Department officials have begun talks with key European allies about a master plan to be put forward this summer at summits of the Group of Eight nations, NATO allies and the European Union, U.S. officials say, as reported by the Washington Post.

With international backing, the United States then hopes to win commitments of action from Middle Eastern and South Asian countries, the paper said.

"It's a sweeping change in the way we approach the Middle East," a senior State Department official told the daily.

"We hope to roll out some of the principles for reform in talks with the Europeans over the next few weeks, with specific ideas of how to support them," the official added.

Human Rights

The initiative, the paper said, would call for Arab and South Asian governments to adopt major political reforms, be held accountable on human rights - particularly women's empowerment - and introduce economic reforms, U.S. and European officials said.

Details are still being crafted, but it is scheduled to be announced at the G-8 summit hosted by President Bush at Sea Island, Ga., in June.

According to the plan, Western nations would offer to expand political engagement, increase aid, facilitate membership in the World Trade Organization, as incentives for the target countries to cooperate.

The awards include fostering security arrangements, possibly some equivalent of the Partnership for Peace with former Eastern Bloc countries.

The administration's general goal is to put meat on the bones of Bush's call for political change throughout the Islamic world, outlined in two speeches last fall at the National Endowment for Democracy and in London, U.S. officials said.

'Helsinki-Style'

Vice President Cheney first hinted at the initiative last month in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

"Our forward strategy for freedom commits us to support those who work and sacrifice for reform across the greater Middle East," he said.

"We call upon our democratic friends and allies everywhere, and in Europe in particular, to join us in this effort," he added.

The U.S. approach is loosely modeled on the 1975 Helsinki accords signed by 35 nations, including the United States, the Soviet Union and almost all European countries, the Post said.

The pact was designed to recognize disputed post-World War II borders and establish a mechanism for settling other disagreements.

But human rights and fundamental freedoms became key parts of the treaty, giving the West leverage to promote and protect dissident groups in the Soviet bloc and urge greater freedoms for its residents.

Many experts now regard Helsinki as one of the most influential international pacts signed after World War II, and conservatives say it sped the demise of Eastern Bloc communism.

"There is a belief that [Helsinki] contributed to bringing Europe together and played a significant role in tearing down the Soviet Union," a State Department official told the Post.

"In the same way, this idea would tear down the attractiveness of [Islamic] extremism," he added.

Unlike Helsinki, however, the administration's "Greater Middle East Initiative" seeks to avoid creating committees and structures to strictly monitor progress and issue report cards, U.S. officials say.

It also seeks to avoid appearing to dictate to the Islamic world, the American paper added.

In what he called a major rethinking of the U.S. policy towards the Middle East, President George W. Bush said in a speech on November 6, that the people of the region should have responsible democratic leaders, announcing a new American "forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East".

"Our commitment to democracy is being tested in the Middle East, " Bush had vowed.

Secretary of State Colin Powell announced in December last year a 29-million-dollar initiative to foster "democracy" in the Middle East.

The plan, entitled the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative, "will provide funding and a framework for the U.S. to work together with governments and peoples in the Arab world to expand economic, education and political opportunity," said the State Department.

Skepticism

European governments generally support the idea, but they have varying degrees of skepticism about whether a Helsinki-like approach will work in the Middle East, U.S. and European officials said.

The Danish and Canadian governments have done serious work on the issue and are coming up with their own draft proposals, they added.

The administration had originally pledged that ousting former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein through the invasion of the oil-rich country and creating a Palestinian state would serve as catalysts for democracy.

But now that the Arab-Israeli peace process is deadlocked and Iraq's political transition is in trouble, the United States is effectively leapfrogging both to generate political change in the region, U.S. and European officials were quoted by the Post as saying.

Moreover, Arab countries may find political change difficult, as long as the Arab-Israeli conflict goes unresolved, said the Post.

Arab observers said that the U.S. continued bias towards Israel continues to belie all American initiatives in the region.

Washington had voted against a resolution condemning Israel's wall intruding on Palestinian areas and hindered all plans for deployment of peacekeepers to defuse the long-standing conflict.

Given the current occupation of Iraq, now sliding into bubbly cauldron of chaos and anarchy, many people throw suspicions on the true ambitions of the United States, especially after no weapons of mass destruction have been found there.

Washington's key allies are also concerned that any initiative will be vulnerable because of sharp differences between the Middle East and the former East Bloc.

The European Union is also cautious because of its long-standing dialogue with Arab nations on the Mediterranean, which has had some success in reforming education and health systems but marginal impact on politics.

"We welcome the goal, but we want to see how the Americans plan to get there," a European envoy told the Post. "We've been trying for a while, and efforts at modernization don't easily seep through to politics".