Arab countries are not ready to carry out reforms from within and may be better off taking a closer look at a US plan to spread democracy in the region, Qatarâs foreign minister said. âThe Arab world is not ready to launch its own (reform) initiative due to diverging interests,â said Foreign Minister Hamed bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani in reports published in local newspapers on Tuesday. Thani, who spoke Monday night during a cultural festival in Doha, defended a US plan to unveil a âGreater Middle Eastâ initiative to promote democracy in Arab and Muslim states during the Group of Eight summit of developed nations in June. He called on Arabs to âstudy the contents and to rationally examine the ideas and objectivesâ of the US plan. Thani proposed a âstrategic partnership between countries of the region and world powers,â based on the US plan to âpromote democracy in the world.â
Kuwait said on Tuesday it backed political reform in the Middle East but any changes should be homegrown, in an apparent rebuff to Washingtonâs âGreater Middle East Initiativeâ. The initiative calls for internal reforms by Middle Eastern states, where Washington says lack of democracy has fostered Islamic militancy. It has been dismissed by Arab states for failing to mention the Arab-Israeli conflict, which they say is at the heart of the regionâs problems. âWe believe reforms are necessary and that these reforms should stem from the people and from within the regimes, but they cannot be imposed from outside,â Kuwaiti PM told reporters at parliament.
| The homegrown variety will take better, but first you have to grow some. The sticker's freedom of religion, of course. If you leave people to make their own decisions there's no telling what they're going to decide. Devout Muslims, with turbans and automatic weapons, could find themselves living next door to Lutherans or something. |
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