Arabs say G8 reform plan an improvement

The Group of Eight's plan for reform in the Middle East improved on the original version for some Arabs but many still doubted Washington's intentions and commitment to a fair peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The United States and other G8 members heavily rewrote much of the Greater Middle East Initiative and re-branded it as the Partnership for Progress and a Common Future with the Region of the Broader Middle East and North Africa.
The United Arab Emirates newspaper al-Khaleej mocked the change of name in a cartoon on Thursday, juxtaposing the two versions with a challenge to spot the seven differences.
But in Yemen, Deputy Foreign Minister Mustafa Noman said the final form had taken into consideration the serious reservations of Arab countries about Washington's original draft, which caused an uproar among Arabs when it leaked out in February.
"We are committed to reform and we must carry on with this process without any sensitivities and we are looking forward to receiving the necessary international support," he told Reuters.
Arab governments saw the original proposals as part of an intrusive and paternalistic US plan to reorganise the region to suit US and Israeli interests. Liberals in Kuwait, which has an active parliamentary life with an effective opposition, were among those who responded positively to the new version.
"Unfortunately, these reforms have come by way of foreign order, and this is the only shame in the whole issue," said Mohammad al-Saqer, the head of parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and a liberal member of parliament.
"But the reforms themselves are just, needed, and the people of the region deserve to take their freedom... All the reforms demanded are based on democracy, human rights and development, which are things that no one can object to," he told Reuters.
Shafiq Ghabra, the president of the American University of Kuwait, said endorsement by the other G8 members - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia - showed that the reform campaign went beyond the United States.