DOHA, April 5: Arab states should consider US proposals for democratic reform rather than rejecting them outright, the ruler of Qatar said on Monday. Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani also said Arabs could no longer use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and security fears to justify delaying much-needed political, social and economic change.
"The calls for reform coming from abroad need reflection by the people of our region before rejecting it...They should be carefully studied so that if it is accepted, it is with confidence and if it is rejected, it is justified," he told the opening session of a conference on democracy and free trade.
President George Bush believes lack of freedom in the Muslim world helps fuel terrorism and has pledged to promote democratic reform. But Saudi Arabia and Egypt, two key US allies, have rejected the initiative and warned Washington against imposing ready-made recipes.
Arab leaders have complained the initiative does not address the Arab-Israeli conflict, which they see as key to the region's woes. Some have also warned the West that free elections might bring extremists to power.
"Honesty obliges us to stress that the wrath in our region does not spring only from the Palestinian cause but goes deeper and is due to problems of our own creation that have nothing to do with the outside world - problems that we allowed to grow unremedied and unchecked," Sheikh Hamad said.
"For years, loud voices have been coming out from the region...claiming that if popular participation is broadened it would only result in bringing in those who would endanger peace and put an end to security.
"Yet, the adoption of reforms has always been the right way to stability," said Sheikh Hamad. Similar calls by the amir have been ignored by Arab leaders, who were irked by the small Gulf state hosting the command centre for the deeply-unpopular US invasion of Iraq and by Doha's contacts with Tel Aviv.
The amir, however, has introduced limited reforms and last year Qataris supported in a referendum a constitution paving the way for an elected advisory body. The proposed constitution was the latest step in political liberalisation by Sheikh Hamad, who has pledged greater freedoms since he deposed his father in a bloodless coup in 1995.
CIVIL WAR: The Qatari foreign minister said on Monday he feared a civil war could break out in Iraq and that the country was becoming a "fertile ground for terrorists".
"The developments in Iraq in the last few days are alarming and we fear that we are facing a civil war in Iraq reminding me of what happened in Afghanistan and Lebanon," Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al Thani told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on democracy in the Middle East.
"We are worried about the cluster of resistance and terrorist organisations in Iraq which has become a fertile ground for these people to implement their extremist ideology," said Sheikh Hamad.
"We fear that terrorists are converging in the country. These (terrorists) have found in the country a place to carry out their extremist ideas," he added. Iraqi interim interior minister Nuri Badran told Kuwait's Al Rai Al Aam newspaper in a report published Monday that Iraq could plunge into civil war if the political process in the strife-ridden nation reaches deadlock.
SUMMIT PRESIDENCY: Bahrain announced on Monday it was extending its position as rotating chair of the Arab summit, which was to expire in March, following Tunisia's postponement of the gathering last month.
"Bahrain has the honour of prolonging its presidency of the 15th Arab summit," held in March 2003 in Egypt, said Information Minister Nabil al-Hamar, quoted by the official BNA news agency. Bahrain chaired the last Arab summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. -Reuters/AFP
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