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| Bush 'not sole agent for reform': Saudis | |
| 2006-02-05 | |
"Saudi Arabia is the country that has been most responsive to demands for reform in the region, but reform, under the leadership of King Abdullah, is not linked to calls from the United States," Mohammad al-Zalfa told AFP. "We don't want the U.S. president to ask the kingdom every now and then for a statement of account of what it did on reform," he said after Bush called on allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia to expand political reform. "Saudi Arabia has taken the first steps of reform -- now it can offer its people a better future by pressing forward with those efforts," Bush said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. "A process of reform is under way, starting with war on extremist ideas which feed terrorism. But reform needs time. It's not a push-button operation," said Zalfa, one of 150 members of the advisory body appointed by the king. "We urge President Bush and his administration not to interfere as if they were the sole agents for reform in the world." Mohammad Ibrahim al-Hulwah, who sits on the council's foreign affairs committee, said there was nothing new in Bush's call. "The Saudi leadership is pressing ahead with the reform drive, as would be clear to anyone following up what's happening -- whether at the level of municipal elections, the expansion of civil society institutions, transparency in the media, or expansion of women's participation (in public life)," he said. Saudi Arabia held landmark male-only elections last year to pick half the members of 178 municipal councils. The other half were appointed by the authorities. But Hulwah welcomed Bush's call in his address for a drastic cut in U.S. oil imports from the Middle East, saying this would help Saudi Arabia conserve this strategic resource instead of continuing to pump at high levels in order to preserve the stability of world oil markets. | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #2 Well maybe when Saudi citizens stop flying planes into U.S. buildings... then the Saudis can b*tch about Bush pushing them to reform. |
| Posted by: bgrebel9 2006-02-05 16:36 |
| #1 We see you. We hear you. You are on the list. Effective with cartoons. you know it. |
| Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 2006-02-05 15:06 |