The Sydney Morning Herald
US to push global aid plan for Middle East
By Simon Mann, Washington
THE US has drafted new aid packages for Egypt and Tunisia worth billions of dollars and is urging global trade and financial support for the emerging democracies of the Middle East and North Africa.
President Barack Obama was set to outline details of the deals in a speech today at the State Department, which was set to deal with the historic changes in the region and their impact on US foreign policy.
Billed as a landmark to match his 2009 Cairo speech, in which he cited a ''new beginning between the United States and Muslims'', Mr Obama was expected to call for international aid on a scale similar to that delivered to eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s.
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It comes as Washington increased pressure on Syria with a new round of sanctions against the government in response to its crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, and as key administration figures urged authorities in Yemen to speed up their political transition.
Mr Obama was to outline a possible ''four pillars'' approach by the world community, according to administration officials who briefed reporters before the speech. These were essentially: support for better economic management; support for economic stability; support for economic modernisation and reform; and the development of a framework for trade integration and investment.
The focus would be on Egypt and Tunisia, which would be ''beacons'' for other aspiring new democracies, the officials said. The countries were set to benefit from a combination of new aid and debt cancellation worth about $US2 billion ($A1.9 billion) for Egypt. No specific figures were previewed for Tunisia.
Multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund would be key vehicles in the process, pledging up to $US3 billion. But Mr Obama was also to propose the reorienting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - which aided the transformation of eastern Europe after the collapse of communism - to steer the Middle East renaissance.
His speech comes in a week in which the White House has focused heavily on the Middle East. The President met Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday and hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow.
The White House also released details of a call between John Brennan, a White House adviser on national security, and President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, urging him to sign a political agreement that would allow Yemen ''to move forward immediately with its political transition''. Mr Saleh this week again backed out of a deal brokered by the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council that would have seen him relinquish power in a month's time.
Mr Obama is expected to use the speech to urge progress in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. White House spokesman Jay Carney said: ''This is a moment of opportunity, and not just for other countries in the region but for Israel and the Palestinians as well.''
With AGENCIES
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-to-push-global-aid-plan-for-middle-east-20110519-1euuv.html
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