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WASHINGTON (Islam Online) - The term "rogue state" will be dropped from US State Department official language. Replacing it will be "states of concern". But the change will not mean that former states classified as "rogue" will have US policy towards them eased. The BBC quotes US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as saying, "We are now calling these states 'states of concern' because we are concerned about their support for terrorist activities, their development of missiles, their desire to disrupt the international system." Formerly, a rogue state was defined as a state that had no part in the international system, because they had initiated efforts to sabotage that system. The term is being replaced because states formerly falling underneath that category no longer can be defined as such. The Washington Post quotes State Department spokesman Richard Boucher as saying, "I think it would be fair to say that we think the category has outlived its usefulness." "Some of those countries aren't as bad as they used to be," said a State Department official to the BBC. Libya is moving away from some former positions and policies, while still stubbornly not cooperating with the United Nations over issues such as Lockerbie. Iran is sowing democratic seeds. North Korea has halted long-range missile tests, while the US eases trade sanctions upon the country. But sanctions will remain on former rogue states unless they change behavior the US finds troublesome. Whether a rogue state or state of concern, the US does not officially blacklist such states. Among the countries that had been on the former rogue list were: Serbia, Sudan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Cuba and Syria have been called "terrorism sponsors" but were rarely called rogues. |
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