7 - 13 February 2002
Issue No.572
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 February 2002 Issue No.572 |
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Policy in flux
Urging greater economic liberalisation and deep-reaching "social" transformation, former US ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner has outlined his country's new rules of engagement in the Middle East. Aziza Sami reports
The events of 11 September brought about a "sharp course correction" in US policy on the Middle East, former American ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner said on Tuesday. Speaking to members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, Wisner said that the US would reinforce its traditional three-pronged policy of forging strong ties "with Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia" within the context of the Middle East peace process. US policy will also be urging greater economic liberalisation in Egypt and the Arab countries in general, as well as inducing Egypt to revert to its role of being a "lighthouse of liberal values" in the face of political violence and radical ideologies. Wisner, US ambassador in Cairo from 1986 until 1991, expressed his "personal regrets" at what he described as the Bush administration's "disengagement from deep involvement" in the Middle East peace process upon its accession one year ago.
He said that the Bush administration had "backed out of diplomatic engagement in the peace process for reasons which he deemed "inadequate." What happened on 11 September, however, Wisner said, induced a sharp correction in America, with the war on terrorism now a central feature in US policy, almost sure to last in the current administration and the years to come."
Wisner stressed that, "The US cannot pursue its interests in this region unless it has its three traditional policy pillars. These are its relations with Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Each is critical to the future of the US, and its ability to operate here, and ... in order to survive. The US also needs the Middle East's hydrocarbon resources which are an important part of the world economy."
Wisner said that the US would have a "future involvement in Somalia, maybe even in Yemen." As regards Iraq, the US had "real worries" concerning the possibility of its resorting to "weapons of mass destruction, already used on two previous occasions," with no guarantee that this would not be repeated, he said.
He admitted that, "Americans have been slow to wake up to the fact that the crisis we faced on 11 September and the seeds of radicalism sown that day have had their origins in the sense of despair, alienation and anger that has grown on the streets of the Arab world." The region's "great ideas, of Arab nationalism and socialism, have floundered, and no longer have saliency," he added. "Obviously, no other good ideas have taken their place."
He cited "the two Intifadas behind us" and said that "we have yet to appreciate" the realities related to the Palestinian tragedy. He argued that Israel's behaviour, "however justified" it may be, was "bitter, defensive and violent in occupying previously free Palestinian territories."
Palestinian leadership on the other hand, Wisner said, remained "unable to control elements which undertake terrorist attacks."
He said that he "personally regretted that the Bush administration broke the pattern of engagement with the peace process and left it to Israel to define the lines of cease-fire."
He recommended that the parameters for conducting peace negotiations, be they the Tenet and Mitchell recommendations or the Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent statements made in Louisville, should incorporate the principles of ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state. Invoking what he termed as the late President Anwar El-Sadat's "genius" in "bringing the peace process across to the man of the street, Wisner said that Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia needed to "adopt a top- down strategy in attaining peace." The peace process, he said, needed to be conducted "outside of the climate of denigration, and (without attacking) the other party's basis of legitimacy."
He said, "We must work hard and see what is written publicly in textbooks and the media, what is preached from masjids [mosques] and pulpits, in order to disseminate a relationship of peace, not violence, destruction or denigration." He said that there was also "concern in the Middle East region about governments, and perceptions of deep and wide-spread corruption at official level."
Wisner added that the next phase of Egypt-US relations needed to be defined not only in terms of the economy and politics, but as well in terms of "what kind of society we want to live in." He urged that Egypt "reinstil the liberal values" which it had brought to the region through its society and intellectual life.
Wisner, who has strong business links with US multinationals and is vice-chairman of American International Group (AIG), the world's largest international insurer, said that the current turbulence in the global market, exacerbated by 11 September, has been "reflected and felt in very different ways inside the Egyptian economy whose performance and prospects are disappointing to everyone." He said that the economic reform programs begun in the 1980s and 90s had not fully completed their course. Restructuring has not yet produced the [anticipated] results. The foreign exchange markets were particularly troubled. Growth last year was flat and did not show much of a prospect until about 2004. Citing rising unemployment, a sizeable trade deficit and declining foreign investment, Wisner urged the Egyptian government to "go back to the IMF and make a deal, build up your reserves, ease your foreign exchange situation and take on the structural demands in association with the IMF." He said that the economy's problems in the early eighties, some of which were similar to those it faces today, had been resolved through "a number of brave decisions. The period of discipline with the IMF, despite its being debatable as infringing upon Egypt's sovereignty, provided it with the capacity to make politically tough decisions." Wisner said that the Egyptian economy's problem currently lay "not solely in macroeconmic performance, but much more so in the micro field, in encumbering government regulation which discourages business not only in Egypt but in all of the Arab world."
He said that he hoped a new arrangement between Egypt and the IMF would focus "less on the macroeconomic variables and more on freeing the market, to make their industry competitive, and lighten the burdens faced by Egyptian businesses."
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