Panel I of a Hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - The Greater Middle East Initiative: Sea Island and Beyond

Federal News Service

HEADLINE: PANEL I OF A HEARING OF THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST INITIATIVE: SEA ISLAND AND BEYOND

CHAIRED BY: SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R-IN)

WITNESS: ALAN LARSON, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR ECONOMIC, BUSINESS AND AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS

LOCATION: 419 SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

BODY:
SEN. LINCOLN CHAFEE (R-RI): Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much, and welcome, Secretary Larson.

As a career public servant, and having served around the world-I believe Zaire, Sierra Leone, Jamaica-you trained to understand and pick up what's happening on the ground. How would you assess honestly our credibility and stature at this time in the greater Middle East?

MR. LARSON: What I find interesting from my travels in the-in the greater, broader Middle East, is that despite some very difficult setbacks, including some of the recent developments-the prison abuse scandal in Iraq, and the tough road that we've been walking on the Middle East peace process-people in the region still look to us as a country that has a model that works, that-where people would like to come and live. And we have found in particular in our meetings with young people outside of government, young entrepreneurs, young Rotarians, that there is deep interest in this reform agenda. There is deep interest in the question of what they can do to make sure they have a bigger voice in the future of their country, bigger opportunity to pursue their educational and economic dreams.

So, I think that we are able to work with the region, to pursue an initiative like this, and it really comes from that reservoir of confidence in the United States, notwithstanding a lot of disagreement with what is perceived to be, what is perceived to be some of the policies that we're following.

SEN. CHAFEE: Yes, that's putting a good face on it, and I respect that. The president's own Djerejian Report said that hostility towards America is reaching shocking levels, so we do have to be concerned that actually, and what I'm hearing from people in the region, that by pushing this, conversely, we're hurting the effort, that we're undermining real reformers just because our credibility and the hostility towards us is, as the Djerejian Report said, reaching shocking levels. Does that concern you that by pushing it we're actually hurting the real reformers in the region?

MR. LARSON: I think it is something to consider. However, in my visits-Secretary Powell went to the World Economic Forum and sat down with leaders of the Arab Business Council and of leading Arab NGOS, and the message that we heard there was, you know, "Keep it up. You have helped to start a debate that needs to take place." Obviously, reform must come from within the region. We all respect that. We respect the fact that it will have to come in different ways and at different paces. But there was very strong support from these groups in civil society and from the business community for the agenda that we were helping to push. And I found that encouraging because, as you pointed out, the Djerejian Report and others-other similar reports, have suggested that there is serious disaffection with what is perceived to be our policy in many parts of this region.

SEN. CHAFEE: And yes, I'm sure there are some that say "keep it up," but certainly the majority of the comments upon the release of the initiative were strong opposition. And I have a whole list of quotes here, but I suppose one, the Jordanian foreign minister said, "Our objective is for this document never to see the light." And on and on it goes.

MR. LARSON: Well --

SEN. CHAFEE: So, I mean, we have to be realistic also, and --

MR. LARSON: The --

SEN. CHAFEE: -- be honest about we want to pursue our goals.

MR. LARSON: Yeah. Let me comment a little bit about just how we pursued consultation with the region. The document that the foreign minister was commenting on was one that was an internal G-8 working document that was leaked by someone in the G-8 process. And I must say that in my experience over a couple of decades working on G-8 summits, it's the first time this has ever happened. It was very, very unfortunate, and we suffered a setback because of it, because it carried the perception that there was some sort of blueprint that was being developed without consultation from the region.

What we've done since then is to engage in an all-out process of consultation with the region. We have shared our ideas, including a few (non-papers ?), with government leaders, with business leaders, with NGO leaders. We've had meetings. I-in one of my preparatory meetings for the G-8, I invited to Washington the main author of the Arab Human Development Report, the president of the Arab Business Council, and leaders of the reform process, government and non- government, from the region. We sat down and we got their advice.

So, I think we have begun to recover from that period a couple of months ago when there was a sense that we had a secret plan that we were going to publish at Sea Island, and then only then the region would find out about it. We are meeting, even this week, we're continuing our consultations with the region so that they have a full opportunity to give us advice on these types of initiatives, and I think through those efforts we have helped turn around the sentiments that you are referring to.

SEN. CHAFEE: I might argue that, seeing as our credibility being what it is, that the cynics would say that it was purposely leaked just to make compromise all the more palatable down the road. But, that being as --

Now, the G-8 countries, of course, many of them have been opponents of the war in Iraq. And how do you expect the feedback at Sea Island from these particular countries, many of-some quotes I have here, in opposition also, talking about our paternalistic attitudes towards the region, that they've been very involved in, much longer than we have.

MR. LARSON: First of all, having just gotten off a conference call with my G-8 counterparts earlier this morning, I think we are very, very close to agreement on the package of ideas that we have been developing for Sea Island. So, we-we have been bringing this process along.

Secondly, I would just say that I think it is paternalistic to say that this is a region that can't experience democracy, that can't experience economic growth, and can't experience educational opportunity. I think it would be the worst form of paternalism to say that while we can talk about these issues in other parts of the world, but we can't really have it part of the agenda in this part of the world.

SEN. CHAFEE: Okay. I know my time is up, but I don't think anybody is saying it can't happen. Nobody's saying that. It's just at its own pace, as opposed to on our timetable.

MR. LARSON: Well-and I think we would all agree with that, that it will have to be at their own pace, and that will differ from country to country.

SEN. CHAFEE: Thank you, Secretary.