Egyptians ask US to focus on policy instead of image
CAIRO, Sept 26: Prominent Egyptians told the Bush administration’s public relations guru on Monday that the United States can improve its image in the Middle East only by changing its policies.
The intellectuals and civil society leaders cited policies on Iraq, Iran, Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and what they said was inconsistent US treatment of repressive Arab governments.
“You cannot separate them (image and policies). They have to go hand in hand ... You cannot sell an image while the policies are not there,” said Mohamed Kamal, one of the guests at a lunch hosted by US Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes.
“If you really want to change the perception, you have to change the policies,” added Lamees al-Hadidi, an independent journalist who also attended the meeting.
An Egyptian government newspaper also said that Hughes’s mission to improve Washington’s image abroad was bound to fail unless she could promise changes in US policy.
Hughes began her first foreign tour in her new post on Sunday in Egypt, where the government has been friendly towards the United States for 30 years but where most of the people are critical of the invasion of Iraq and US support for Israel.
She left on Monday for Saudi Arabia and will also visit Turkey.
Some of the Egyptians said the United States had helped shake up domestic politics in the Middle East with its campaign for democracy but others said they doubted it was serious.
“What they (the United States) have achieved is colossal. We all know that the (Egyptian presidential) elections were fraudulent but the fact that people stood in central Cairo and called Mubarak incompetent is significant,” said Hisham Kassim, a newspaper publisher and opposition politician.
But Hadidi, who worked on Mubarak’s campaign but has since returned to journalism, said: “I did not get the impression that she was serious about the policies or even capable of changing them. She is here just to improve the image.”
Divisions came to light at the meeting between Egyptians who see the main problem as US policy on Iraq and the Palestinians and those more interested in its attitude to Egyptian politics.
They also disagreed amongst themselves on whether it was helpful when the United States intervenes on behalf of Egyptian liberals when the authorities harass them.
In recent years the United States has taken a stand in support of liberal sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim and opposition leader Ayman Nour, Mubarak’s main opponent in Sept. 7 elections.
Nour, who came second with 8 per cent of the vote against Mubarak’s 89 per cent, is on trial on forgery charges which Nour says the authorities fabricated to undermine him.
The new editor of the government daily Al Gomhuria said on Monday that Egyptians who meet Hughes should advise the United States to withdraw from Iraq and put pressure on Israel to withdraw from all of the West Bank, after leaving Gaza.—Reuters
