U.S. Will Support the "Arab Spring" With its Dollar

Barack Obama announced a massive aid program for Tunisia and Egypt.

In his keynote speech at the State Department on Washington’s new policy in the Middle East and North Africa, U.S. President Barack Obama said that the U.S. must take advantage of this “historic opportunity” in the wake of Arab revolutions in the region.

Half a year after the beginning of mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt — that later leapt over to Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria — Washington decided to take the initiative in creating a new “democratic” Middle East and North Africa. While in the first two countries the protests resulted in relatively bloodless changes of regime, in the others, clashes with numerous casualties, including a civil war in Libya, could not be avoided.

Starting by enumerating the reasons for which the Middle East and North Africa began to “boil up,” the U.S. president outlined the priorities of American policy, which will now be “to promote reform across the region and to support transitions to democracy.”

The first two countries where Washington plans to start implementing this policy are Tunisia and Egypt. “We’ve asked the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to present a plan at next week’s G8 summit for what needs to be done to stabilize and modernize the economies of Tunisia and Egypt,” explained Obama.

For its part, the United States intends to create its own mechanism of democratizing the two countries, including a combination of direct financial aid, debt forgiveness and lending. Upon authorization by Congress, a special fund will be established to promote entrepreneurship and investments in Egypt and Tunisia. In addition, the U.S. government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation is going to open a $2 billion line of credit for the two countries. Essentially, America is going to give a new impetus to trade in these countries. It is Obama’s opinion that Europeans, namely the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, also need to contribute to the economic development of these countries that have renounced authoritarianism.

Lastly, in a symbolic but very generous gesture, the United States is writing off its part of Egypt’s external debt. The debt was incurred back in the 1970’s for importing American wheat and it now exceeds $1 billion. Even though the U.S. president didn’t mention this in his speech, it is possible that at the G8 summit in Deauville, France scheduled for late May, Americans will request that the other members of the Group of Eight also forgive the debts of the “new Egypt.”

It is interesting that Congress viewed the U.S. president’s generosity somewhat differently. For example, the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, immediately stated, “considering our own national debt, we cannot afford to forgive up to $1 billion of Egypt’s debt.”

It is worth noting that when speaking at the National Press Club in Washington a few days before Obama’s Middle East speech James Jones, the former Assistant to the U.S. President for National Security Affairs, was quite outspoken about the purpose of large-scale American assistance to Egypt and the other countries in the region. He compared the program to the post-war Marshall Plan that was launched in the U.S. after the Second World War mainly to prevent the spread of communism in Western Europe. Jones explained that the new U.S. Middle East strategy should be aimed at weakening the positions of radical Islamists in the countries that have undergone a change of regime.

During his speech at the State Department, the U.S. president also found a few words for those states that, despite the Arab Spring, don’t want to be democratized and continue, in Washington’s opinion, to oppress their own people. He was specifically critical of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who was advised to “lead that transition or get out of the way.”

It is noteworthy that during his 45-minute speech, President Obama indirectly responded to numerous critics who accused the U.S. of political double standard in the region. In particular, many wondered why Washington supported the mass protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Libya while ignoring Bahrain, where the local authorities, with external help, have cracked down violently on protests by the Shiite majority.

“There will be times when our short-term interests don’t align perfectly with our long-term vision for the region,” said Obama. He stated, “if America is to be credible, we must acknowledge that at times our friends in the region have not all reacted to the demands for consistent change — with change that’s consistent with the principles that I’ve outlined today,” adding that he was talking about Yemen and Bahrain. However, he didn’t say a word about the longtime U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia, who, along with other Gulf countries, practically invaded the small island nation of Bahrain.

The head of the White House concluded his long speech with rather sensational statements about the necessity of a rapid resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the principle of restoring the borders that existed in 1967. “The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,” said the U.S. president.

“The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine,” said the head of the American state.

Let us remind you that Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, has repeatedly stated that “it is unrealistic to expect” Israel to return to the 1967 borders.