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US now backing Syrian opposition
Syria has condemned America for funding opposition groups, just as Condoleezza Rice begins a Middle East tour to push efforts to spread democracy and counter Iran's aggressive nuclear policy.The American authorities said last week that they had allocated £3 million to "democratic reformers in Syria". The money is part of £180 million in Washington funding to promote reforms in the Middle East and North Africa. The US has also condemned Syria's alleged role in the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, a year ago. "It is interference in our internal affairs. We reject it totally," said Walid al-Moualem, Syria's foreign minister. The American secretary of state arrives in Cairo today to meet Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president. Last week, Miss Rice said she was "disappointed" that the president had postponed municipal elections, planned to begin in April, for two years. Egypt is one of America's chief targets for its scheme to promote democracy in the Middle East. "The message that I will take to Egypt is that Egypt needs to stay on the democratic course," Miss Rice said. She will also ask Egypt to refuse finance to the prospective new Hamas government in Palestine as long as it fails to recognise Israel's right to exist. Egypt is one of the few Arab countries to have signed a peace deal with Israel. Miss Rice will then travel to Saudi Arabia, continuing her appeal for regional leaders to be tougher with Iran, which last week she called "the central banker to terrorism and a strategic challenge to the United States, to the world, and a destabilising influence in the Middle East." Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-20 |
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