Bush tells Middle East regimes to change their ways

WASHINGTON - In his most uncompromising tones yet, President Bush told repressive regimes in the Middle East - some of them long-standing US allies - that they must change their ways and meet the popular demands for reform suddenly emerging across the region.
"Authoritarian rule is not the wave of the future, it is the last gasp of a discredited past," Mr Bush declared, serving notice that in his second term he intends to step up the pressure from Washington for democratic change throughout the Middle East.

As proof - and even as hundreds of thousands of people took part in a pro-Syrian demonstration in Beirut denouncing Western "interference" - the President for the first time gave Damascus a specific two-month deadline to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.

President Bashar Assad had an "important" choice to make, the President declared in a wide-ranging speech to the National Defence University here.

Either it could withdraw all military and intelligence personnel before the presidential election in May, or face "even greater isolation from the world."

Those elections, moreover, should be fully monitored by international observers.

With the confidence of a man who believes recent events in countries as diverse as Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are proving him right, Mr Bush argued once more that economic prosperity and above all political reform were key to long-term victory in the 'war on terrorism."

"Clearly and suddenly the thaw has begun," he said, referring to the changes great and small across the region in the last few weeks, particularly since Iraq's election on January 30.

At one point, he repeated the phrase that became the leitmotif of his inaugural address 10 days before that vote, proclaiming America's "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."

In words aimed at traditional US allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, he warned that in the transformed post 9/11 world, they could no longer automatically count on Washington's support, no matter what their domestic policies.

Too often in the past "tyranny had been accommodated in the interests of stability," Mr Bush said.

But today there was no chance of economic progress without political modernisation. No society, moreover, "can advance with only half of its talent and energy - and that demands the full participation of women."

And in this struggle for democracy, Lebanon was in the front line. Making no mention of the country's deep sectarian divides -- reflected in this week's competing demonstrations in Beirut -- the President declared simply that "freedom will prevail in Lebanon."

Anyone who doubted the appeal of freedom should look to Lebanon, and if freedom took root there, "it will ring on the doors of every Arab regime."

Once again, Mr Bush seemed to imply that Washington would even tolerate new governments that did not share America's world view. Each country would take a different road to reform, "but each one that takes the journey should know that America will walk at its side."

Only events, however, will prove the sincerity of those words. Previous presidents have urged reform in the Middle East, only to acquiesce in the status quo when it seemed US strategic interests might be threatened.

But Mr Bush - a conviction politician more concerned with big ideas than the dispiriting complexities of politically fragmented countries like Lebanon - says he will be different.

A more democratic Middle East, he argued again, offered the best hope of removing the frustrations on which militant Islamism thrives.

Mr Bush also threw his weight behind the European Union initiative to reach a deal with Iran aimed at putting an end to the nuclear ambitions of the Teheran regime.

"We want our allies to succeed," he said, striking a different tone from the open scepticism of some US officials - not least John Bolton, Washington's new ambassador-designate to the United Nations.

But he urged Iran to treat the elections in neighbouring Iraq as an example of what could be in Tehran.

The Iranian regime "should listen to the concerns of the world and listen to the voice of the Iranian people who long for their liberty and want their country to be a respected member of the international community."

- Independent