RABAT,
December 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A US-sponsored
forum was held here Saturday, December 11, with top officials from
North African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries gathering to hear
American proposals for the democratization of the Middle East.
Seen
by many in the region as a form of US “imperialism” and defended
by Arab officials as a golden opportunity for economic renaissance,
the one-day “Forum for the Future” was co-chaired by US Secretary
of State Colin Powell and Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohammad Bin Issa.
The
meeting focused on six issues, chiefly providing macro-credits and
international funding for micro- and -medium-scale projects in the
Middle East and North Africa, enhancing democracy and combating
illiteracy.
The
forum was attended by foreign and finance ministers from more than 20
countries of the Middle East and North Africa along with their
counterparts from the G8 countries -- the United States, France,
Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia -- plus
representatives of international organizations.
Israel
and Sudan were not invited, reported the New York Times
Saturday quoting a US official.
Moroccan
Communications Minister Nabil Benabdellah said Iran had canceled its
participation plans at the last minute.
The
forum is the centerpiece of the so-called Partnership for Progress and
a Common Future with the Region of the Broader Middle East and North
Africa (BMENA).
The
initiative was launched by US President George Bush and leaders of the
G8, along with leaders of seven countries from the region, at the 2004
G8 summit at Sea Island, Georgia, US.
US
Reassurances
In
his opening address, Powell tried to reassure a growing skeptical Arab
public opinion, saying change could only come from within, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
But
Powell, who is due to be replaced as Secretary of State next month by
Condoleezza Rice, stressed that “political and economic freedom go
hand in hand.”
“Countries
with active political participation by all people tend to enjoy
greater investment, economic growth and educational excellence,” he
said.
Powell
earlier said just holding the meeting was a success given the anger
that first met the US initiative.
Powell
argued that the Middle East peace process should not be linked to
democratization as underlined by some Arab leaders.
“We
can't keep pointing to the Middle East peace process as the reason we
won't undertake reform efforts that are needed,” he told reporters
accompanying him to Rabat.
Washington
considers reforms essential in the Arab and Muslim world to ease
frustrations and prejudices that it claims breed terrorism.
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Moroccan police officers stand by the poster of 'Forum for the Future' in Rabat (AFP)
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But
the initial US plan, known as the Greater Middle East Initiative,
provoked an outcry from many governments in the targeted countries
where anti-American feelings were and still are running high over Iraq
and Washington's perceived bias towards Israel.
Saudi
Arabia and Egypt have led
opposition to the plan that many Arab leaders also
decried for not placing enough emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, which most see as the main destabilizing factor in the
region.
The
US initiative also raised deep suspicions that the United States
wanted to use it as a tool to impose Western values on Arab and Muslim
societies in the aftermath of the Iraq war.
‘Imperialist’
Though
stressing the importance of reforms and democracy, Moroccan and Arab
activists and observers maintain they should come from within, saying
the Rabat forum only serves the US “imperialist” interests.
Abdel
Razik Al-Darisi, the coordinator of an anti-forum coalition comprising
NGOs and rights groups, told IslamOnline.net that behind that amiable
facade, the forum has an “evil agenda.”
He
said Moroccans are against hosting this US-sponsored forum and even
oppose holding it anywhere in the world “because it is the political
front of the military aggression by the US imperialism.”
The
coalition organized Friday, December 10, a peaceful rally in front of
the Moroccan parliament.
Marchers
waved placards reading: “The Forum is a US Conspiracy,” “The
Scandalous Forum” and “The Forum of the Unfaithful.”
Late
last month, some 35,000 people held a demonstration in Rabat against
the US government's policies in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East.
Khaled
Soufiani, a Moroccan human rights activist who attended the Friday
rally, told AFP that the mere fact that the forum was being held
legitimized “American military aggression on the Arab and Muslim
world.”
In
a front-page cartoon published Friday, the Moroccan business daily L'Economiste
showed a US soldier in full military gear pointing a submachine gun at
an Arab man lying on the ground.
“I
hope that we can come to an understanding of the need for reform and
modernization in the Broader Middle East and North African
region," the soldier tells the Arab.
