Bush to urge democratic change in Middle East
Reuters - World News
Nov 5, 2003
WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush will call for democracy across the Middle East on Thursday and cite a failure of U.S. policy spanning 60 years in support of governments not devoted to political freedom, U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said.
The speech will mark Bush's latest attempt to offer a justification for the war in Iraq as necessary to jump-start democracy in the region at a time when he is under fire for mounting U.S. casualties there and as anti-Americanism spreads among many Muslims who feel Islam is under attack.
In remarks that could raise concerns among some nondemocratic leaders in the region, Bush will mark the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy, a group founded in 1983 following an impassioned call by President Ronald Reagan for renewed efforts to promote global democracy.
Rice told a group of reporters on Wednesday that most of Bush's speech would be about "the new opportunity for a forward strategy for freedom in the Middle East."
Bush has often talked about his hopes that democracy in Iraq would foster a democratic movement in the Middle East, and his new speech appeared to amount to a final break with past U.S. policy of not pushing some governments to adopt democratic institutions.
"After 60 years of trying to find stability through regimes that were not devoted to political liberty for their people, what we found is that we did not buy security and stability, but rather frustration and pent-up emotions in a region that has fallen behind in terms of prosperity and in fact continues to produce ideologies of hatred," Rice said.
Bush will not call for Western-style democracies to take root in the area, pointing out that modernization in the sense of political and economic freedom is not synonymous with westernization, in answer to the mullahs who denounce western influences.
"This is not the United States doing something to this region. This is a region in which the stirrings are really quite clear .... You could never, as the United States, decide, 'all right, this region now needs to pursue freedom.' But the people of the region are clamoring for it," Rice said.
She would not say which countries in the region Bush would single out as needing democracy, but the United States has often expressed concern about Syria and Iran.
Syria on Wednesday said its relations with the United States were at their most negative point in years and blamed U.S. policy in the Middle East for the deterioration in ties.
Washington has been at odds with Iran over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program. The Bush administration also wants Iran to turn over to Washington a number of al Qaeda members Iran says it is holding.
Rice said Bush would praise those Middle Eastern states whose democratic evolution is in development, such as three ruled by royal families, Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
A difficult case is U.S. ally Egypt, recipient of $2 billion in U.S. assistance each year. Egypt's government lacks democratic credentials, but there have been efforts to reform the political system and take steps toward democratization.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_3399.shtmlWorld court to rule on US-Iran row over war-hit oil rigs
Thursday, November 06, 2003
IranMania News
THE HAGUE, Nov 5 (AFP) - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is set to rule Thursday on a long-running row between Tehran and its arch-foe Washington over the US destruction of oil platforms during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
The case, in which Iran is demanding unspecified damages, is a potential source of embarrassment for the United States as it recalls the close ties ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime once enjoyed with Washington.
Iran filed a complaint in 1992 with the ICJ, the United Nation's highest judicial body, arguing that the destruction of three oil rigs violated a 1955 friendship treaty between the two countries -- even though diplomatic ties were severed after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Tehran, one of the world's top oil producers, argues that the attack on the rigs in 1987 and 1988 hurt its oil exports.
It wants the court to order the United states to "make full reparation to Iran for the violation of its international legal obligations and the injury thus caused in a form and amount to be determined by the court".
The United States has filed a countersuit also seeking unspecified damages, claiming that Iran had violated the same treaty by attacking vessels and laying mines in the Gulf.
Both sides presented their arguments in February, with cases before the court frequently taking years to be determined.
Iran said the United States, which led the war that ousted Saddam's regime in April this year, had not been neutral during the Iran-Iraq conflict and had even supplied Baghdad with chemical and biological weapons.
Lawyers for Washington argued that the United States remained neutral during the eight-year war, which cost at least one million lives, because defending its own security interests did not affect its neutrality.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=19424&NewsKind=Business%20%26%20Economy"She would not say which countries in the region Bush would single out as needing democracy, but the United States has often expressed concern about Syria and Iran."
I used to like Condoleezza Rice, but she becomes more disappointing by the week. Her refusal here to mention Iran, and a statement a couple weeks ago saying Iran has a democratic gov't, shows she's not with the agenda. Afraid it's time for Ms. Rice to GO.
I'm hoping the Iranian students get ahold of a copy of Bush's speech today. It was incredible!