Bahrain, Iran join rejecting the American democratic initiative

Bahrain has rejected the American project to establish democracy in the Middle East, considering that any initiative for political reforms should be made in coordination with the countries of the region.

In an interview on Friday with the Monte Carlo radio on the American initiative, the prime minister of Bahrain Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman al-Khalifa called for coordination and cooperation with the countries if the region " and in the course of dialogue and understanding with the leaderships of these countries."

He said that the " imposition of any foreign view point separately is not in the interests of countries of the region." This position comes after each of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which are also mentioned by the American initiative directly on Wednesday answered in "not accepting imposition of a certain reform system on the Arab and Islamic states from abroad," as stated in a joint statement.

Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia warned against that such reforms will be converted into " chaos " in the region, citing the current situation in Iraq as an example.

For its part, Iran rejected the American project in its being a pretext to launch threats against it and Syria and Lebanon, in particular.

Iran's defense minister Ali Shamakhani who arrived on Friday to Lebanon by land from Damascus said that his visit aims at enhancing cooperation to withstand challenges imposed on the region under the slogan of spreading democracy. Shamakhani added about such a democracy "we saw that the US backed dictator regimes."

Each of Lebanon and Syria had also criticized this American project.

This project aims at a political restructuring of a region that extends from Pakistan to Mauritania passing through Iraq, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the states of the Arab Maghreb, according to information published last week in the Arab press.

Commenting on the American project, France said that any project for reforms in the Middle East passes through a solution for the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

The spokesman for the French foreign ministry Herve Ladso said yesterday " first the ME peace process should be resumed because it is a just demand." He was replying to questions relating to the American project. Ladso said that France follows up with the Arab states a dialogue " which has been deepened in light of these thoughts and schemes proposed for the " Greater Middle East."