[A-List] US State Department Pushes Broader NATO Role In 'Greater Middle East'

[Rick Rozoff]

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/401668.html

Associated Press 
March 5, 2004 


U.S. seeks NATO role in Middle East reform drive  
 
 
-"NATO is going to be part of this conversation about
change in the Middle East and NATO has something very
important to offer," U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc
Grossman told reporters.
-NATO is already working on widening its decade-old
"Mediterranean Dialogue" program with Israel, Morocco,
Mauritania, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Jordan.
Diplomats said the current low-level of political and
military contacts could be expanded to include more
invitations to NATO training programs, joint
exercises, advice on defense reforms and participation
in alliance peacekeeping missions.



 
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The United States sought Friday to
enlist NATO support for its drive to encourage
political, economic and social reform in the "greater
Middle East." 
  
"NATO is going to be part of this conversation about
change in the Middle East and NATO has something very
important to offer," U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc
Grossman told reporters.

He suggested the military alliance could cooperate
with Middle Eastern nations in areas ranging from
earthquake relief to border security and fighting
trafficking in drugs, immigrants or weapons of mass
destruction.

Grossman briefed NATO allies after a tour to Jordan,
Egypt, Morocco and Bahrain to discuss the U.S. reform
initiative which has been denounced by some Arab
nations as an imposition of foreign ideas and
interference in their internal affairs.

Nevertheless Washington's European allies are
supporting the call for more democratic reform in the
region, which as been defined as stretching from
Morocco in the west to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Britain and Italy have expressed similar ideas. A
document drawn recently by the French and German
governments calls for European Union action to back
Middle East reform, but independently of the United
States and outside of NATO.

"The EU should define a distinct approach which
compliments that of the United States, working through
its own institutions and instruments," the
Franco-German paper says. "The Union's framework for
cooperation should remain separate from that of NATO."

Washington is hoping the various ideas on promoting
regional reform will be drawn together into a coherent
approach during a series of meetings in June. The
first one being at the upcoming G-8 leaders summit
June 8-10 at the resort of Sea Island, in the state of
George in the United States.

It will also be raised when U.S. President George W.
Bush meets EU leaders June 25-26 in Ireland and
finally at a NATO summit June, 28-29 in Istanbul,
Turkey.

Arab leaders are also hoping to draw up a reform plan
at a summit late this month in Tunisia. Jordan's King
Abdullah II said Tuesday the 22-member Arab League
will present its reform proposal at the G-8 summit.

"It's very clear that this issue - how to support
reform in the area - is on the agenda, it's on
everybody's agenda," said Grossman.

The No. 3 official at the U.S. State Department
insisted the western powers were not seeking to force
reform on Muslim nations. "The best ideas will come
from the region," he said. "This is not about the
United States or Europe or anyone else imposing reform
on people."

NATO is already working on widening its decade-old
"Mediterranean Dialogue" program with Israel, Morocco,
Mauritania, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Jordan.

Diplomats said the current low-level of political and
military contacts could be expanded to include more
invitations to NATO training programs, joint
exercises, advice on defense reforms and participation
in alliance peacekeeping missions.

Arab nations around the Mediterranean may also be
invited to send warships to help the alliance's
anti-terrorism patrols introduced to monitor shipping
after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

"We want to go forward in supporting ideas for reform,
economic reform, political reform, educational reform
... all of those things would be so much more
successful if there's also security and I think NATO
has some role to play in that," Grossman concluded.  




 


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