Bahrain: an Egyptian divergence, a Bush flop

At an international conference this month attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and designed to strengthen local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society in the Middle East, Egyptian officials pressed for language stipulating that only organisations legally registered with their governments were covered by the new fund, known as the Foundation for the Future.

[...]

Saudi Arabia and Oman initially supported the Egyptian position, but ultimately all the governments except Egypt agreed to remove language that would have given them control over foreign resources going to groups in their countries.

Several Arab delegates reportedly saw the language of the U.S. draft as another indication that the Bush administration was attempting to impose democracy "from the outside". Several delegations said that Arabs want more say in crafting criteria for change.

Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. aid, after Israel; it receives roughly 2 billion dollars in U.S. military and economic assistance annually. Since it made peace with Israel more than 25 years ago, it has received tens of billions of dollars from the U.S. It is home to more than half the Arab world's population.

how quaint... egypt wants egyptian ngo's who receive money to be legally registered in egypt... arabs in general want more say in developing criteria that apply to their own countries and don't want democracy imposed "from the outside..." what a concept...!

dr. omid safi of colgate university:

"The failure of the Forum for the Future yet again brings to light the failure of the Bush administration to grasp that the majority of people in the Middle East will continue to judge U.S. actions not by fancy rhetoric and multi-million-dollar initiatives, but rather by the changing of our foreign policy to one that abides by international human rights agreements and empowers self-determination."

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