Powell unveils plan to reform 'autocratic' Middle East

The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, unveiled an American plan yesterday to bring reform and greater democracy to the Arab world – serving implicit notice that autocratic regimes in the Middle East must change, even if they are US allies.

The $20m (£12m) scheme, called the US-Middle East Partnership Initiative, has been delayed several times this autumn as the crisis with Iraq deepened. But though financially modest, its importance is as an answer to critics who say the US favours authoritarian pro-American governments. The initiative also signals Washington's determination to use a change of regime in Iraq as a catalyst for change throughout the region, even if that means upsetting some allies.

US support for such regimes, which include Egypt and Saudi Arabia, coupled with resentment at wholehearted US backing for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians, has fuelled anti-Americanism across the Arab and Islamic world. The hostility, as it emerged in a survey by the Pew research group last week, is not so much over American values (as President George Bush insists, with his constant claim that "they hate our freedom"), but American policies and what is seen as high-handed unilateralism.

The entire Arab world of 260 million people had a smaller combined GDP than Spain, with 40 million, General Powell said. "A shortage of economic opportunities is a ticket to despair. Combined with rigid political systems, it is a dangerous brew indeed. Along with freer economies, many of the peoples of the Middle East need a stronger political voice."

The looming war against Iraq is widely seen as a grab for Iraqi oil and an attempt to impose a new American settlement on the region to ensure access to that oil and provide security for Israel.

In a host of Islamic and Arab countries, from Turkey to Egypt, and Jordan to Pakistan, the Pew survey found unfavourable attitudes to the US regularly reached 60 to 70 per cent. In Pakistan's case, it was 90 per cent. Yet all four are billed by Washington as allies in the war against terror.

Senior US officials are acutely aware that obvious attempts to intervene in the region could lead to the beneficiaries being seen as American stooges and only increase criticism that the US is meddling where it should not. Thus the initiative, which is intended to promote educational, economic and political reforms, and which will be led by Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, will be something of a stealth operation.

In a hard-hitting speech last week, foreshadowing the Powell plan, Richard Haass, director of policy planning and the "number-three" State Department official, complained of the "freedom deficit" in the Arab world and said the US had done too little to push for reform. In many parts of the Middle East, he warned, "our stance is seen as tacit approval of the status quo".

He indicated that ageing autocratic leaders of US allies in the region could not rely on Washington for ever: "The US will support the democratic process, even if it produces policies not to our liking." But he acknowledged that "unrestrained zeal" on the part of the US could "make matters worse rather than better". America had to show humility, and "follow the precept of the Hippocratic oath: first do no harm," he said. He added that reform could not be imposed but had to be built patiently from within. "Mere elections do not a democracy make," he said.