After American and Egyptian obstacles, the Arab development report issued in the names of its authors

It is expected that the human development report in the Arab states will be published by the end of January 2005 under the names of researchers who supervised its composition, rather under the name of the United Nations Development Program UNDP which financed it.

It was presumed that the report, which is the third of its kind and was to be published in October, met Washington's opposition because of criticism for the American invasion of Iraq and the Israeli occupation practices.

Egypt had also obstructed the release of the report in its first version and asked the UNDP in New York in order to amend parts concerning the inheritance of authority in Egypt and the freedom of organization in the civil society including the freedom of founding parties." According to the Egyptian academic Nader Farajani, who presided over the team supervising the report, the American pressures pushed the UNDP to abrogate the report because of the criticism it implied on the American policy in the region.

Al-Farajani said that the UNDP will not prevent the publication of the report which dealt with the ruling regimes in the Arab states, in the name of its writers who have to raise funds to cover costs of publishing it by the end of January 2005.

The side supervising the report which includes 25-30 persons among most prominent Arab intellectuals said Washington's position regarding what was stated in the report disclosed its real position in standing against freedom in the Arab states.

The composers of the report will be meeting in Beirut on December 26 and 27 to discuss arrangements for publishing the reports under their own names.