Arab FM's adjourn without producing reform plans

Jerusalem Post ^ | Mar. 4, 2004 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[yonif]

Arab foreign ministers adjourned a four-day meeting Thursday without producing a unified position outlining how to reform their societies, officials said of what essentially was to be an Arab response to the Bush administration's strategy for opening up the Middle East.

The ministers "agreed to have further discussions on these ideas and plans," Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohammed Benaissa said at a press conference after the meetings.

He said the ministers would discuss the matter again when they hold a final gathering in Tunisia just before an Arab leadership summit March 29-30.

"The whole matter will be discussed in Tunis," Arab League Chief Amr Moussa said.

Neither Benaissa nor Moussa explained why the ministers were unable to forge a unified position, although both described the reforms as daunting challenges.

The Bush administration is advocating an initiative modeled on the 1975 Helsinki pact that the West used to press for greater freedom and human rights in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Aimed at the arc of countries extending from Morocco to Pakistan, it urges governments to adopt major political and economic reforms and be held accountable on human rights issues, particularly women's empowerment.

The administration was planning to present the plan at the G8 summit of industrial nations in June.

Arab nations, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have loudly objected to the initiative as an imposition of foreign ideas and interference in their internal affairs. They have pushed hard for Arabs to come up with a homegrown reform package.

[tkathy]

Maybe their reform is to quit killing Muslims and concentrate on destroying Israel and the West.