MosNews A State Department official criticized Russian democratic backsliding on the eve of a conference on Middle East reform that Russia is co-chairing with Jordan, Bloomberg news agency reports. ``I think it’s clear that the trends in Russia are not good,’’ Barry Lowenkron, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, told State Department reporters en route to Jordan, where a conference on Middle East democracy is set to open tomorrow at the Dead Sea. ``We have highlighted these problems,’’ Lowenkron said, when asked if he saw any irony in Russia co-chairing the Forum for the Future, a three-year old initiative of the Group of Eight industrial nations designed to promote democracy in the Middle East, amid fresh allegations of Russian abuses. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been criticized in recent months for rolling back the rights of non-governmental organizations and putting limits on a free press. The mysterious death by poison of a Putin critic, Alexander Litvinenko, in London last week sharpened the focus on the Russian president’s rule. A British cabinet minister, Peter Hain, last weekend also questioned the progress of democracy in Russia following the former spy’s death. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is accompanying President George W. Bush to his meetings today and tomorrow in Amman with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will attend the forum along with the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Russia, and Germany. Other G-8 members and Middle Eastern nations are sending representatives. The democracy meeting comes as two U.S.-backed democracy- promotion efforts in the Middle East — Iraq and Lebanon — are facing violent challenges. Democracy promotion, once the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s Middle East policy, appears to have receded as a priority as the U.S. sharpens its focus on restoring security and stability in Iraq, curbing Iran’s nuclear program, and laying the groundwork for a possible resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Lowenkron said he didn’t expect Russia’s abuses to be raised during the two-day forum. ``The focus of this meeting is what happens in’’ the Middle East, Lowenkron said. Tomorrow’s democracy conference will be preceded Bush’s meeting today with Maliki in Amman, where the president is expected to stress the need for Iraqi forces to act more quickly to combat sectarian killings, so violent that some experts are now characterizing the conflict as a civil war. In a bid to demonstrate a renewed U.S. commitment to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking — a key desire of the Saudis, Egyptians and Jordanians — Rice will travel tomorrow to the West Bank town of Jericho to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Abbas meeting follows a flurry of Middle East diplomatic activity in recent days including the declaration, at least in principle, of a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians that raised the prospect of an end to Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel and Israeli air strikes in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a major address Nov. 27, offered a fresh dialogue with Abbas to ensure the creation of a Palestinian state ``with full sovereignty.’’ He welcomed for the first time a Saudi peace initiative, which exchanges recognition of Israel for Palestinian statehood and a final peace deal. On the Iraq front, Vice President Dick Cheney traveled last week to Saudi Arabia to seek Saudi King Abdullah’s help in curbing violence in Iraq. The Iraq Study Group, a congressionally mandated panel headed by former secretary of state James Baker met and discussed recommendations it plans to issue next month on Iraq that include the prospect of U.S. engagement with Iran and Syria on Iraq. Last year, an Iranian representative attended the Forum for the Future summit in Bahrain. It was not clear whether Iran would send a delegate this year. Syria is planning to attend. ``I don’t anticipate I’m going to have those kinds of discussions,’’ Lowenkron said when asked if he would discuss Iraq with the Syrian representative. Last year’s Forum for the Future meeting in Bahrain ended without agreement on a communiqu? after Egypt and other countries objected to language on non-governmental organizations, which they want to continue to control. A final communiqu? was scrapped after the Egyptian delegation left a discussion on the draft amid disagreements. This year, Jordan and Russia will instead issue a less weighty final statement that will outline ``what else needs to be done’’ to empower civil society groups and nurture transparent governance and a free press, Lowenkron said. Out of the forum has emerged a foundation to administer grants to non-governmental organizations in the Middle East. This year $67 million has been committed, including $20 million by the U.S., to fund the groups and the money will start being allocated in the coming weeks, Lowenkron said. http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/11/29/uswantsdemocracy.shtml
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