Greater Middle East: US Not Seeking to Impose Reforms, Grossman

The US is not seeking to impose reforms on middle East countries, said in Morocco Monday US undersecretary for political affairs, Marc Grossman, following a meeting with King Mohammed VI in the Mediterranean city of Al Hoceima.

The United States will rather support anything liable to help realize such reforms Grossman told reporters, the US official who started on Sunday a week-long tour that will lead him to Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain to advance the US proposed reforms for "the Greater Middle East Region," told reporters in this quake-devastated area.

The King promised to "study with due attention" the proposed ideas and insisted on the need to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and to respect the specific nature of all countries of the region."

Grossman, who came to Morocco to express his country's solidarity with Morocco following the earthquake that jolted the northeastern region of Al Hoceima, killing 572 and injuring 400, recalled that 7 planes of US humanitarian aid came to Al Hoceima.

He said he listened to king Mohammed VI's advice, which he termed as accurate and constructive, and learned more on the reforms underway in Morocco, particularly the Family Code and the two successful elections.

Grossman, number three in the State Department, will also be going to Turkey, Brussels, seat of the European Union, and NATO, which Washington wants as partners in its Middle East plans.

Concerning Iraq, he told the press that the US will transfer sovereignty to Iraq on July 1st, as planned earlier, and that the US forces will remain in the country for a certain period after that.

There will be a sovereign Iraqi government on July 1st and after the departure of US forces, America will replace its administration in Iraq by an embassy, he said, adding that Iraqis have a certain vision of a society they would like to live in, a democratic and multi-ethnic one that coexists in peace with its neighbors.