In the first conference of its kind, Arabs and Americans together scrutinised their dysfunctional relationship. Dina Ezzat reports from Detroit Had it not been for an aggressive United States foreign policy statement by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the first US- Arab Economic Forum that opened in Detroit on Sunday evening probably would have been a deceptively rosy view of relations between the US and the Arab world. The conference that opened on Sunday evening -- after almost two years of preparations -- was launched on an optimistic note with Arabs, Americans and Arab-Americans suggesting ideas and expressing enthusiasm for a fresh start towards a better relationship transcending the mutual stereotypes and misunderstandings that proliferated in the wake of 11 September. However, in a speech addressed to the conference on Monday evening, the US secretary of state struck a heavy tone of realism about the complicated nature of Arab- American relations. Powell, to the shock of his audience, tried to justify the Israeli reluctance to carry out the roadmap, while gloating over his country's military occupation of Iraq and its explicit intentions to maintain its military presence indefinitely. Apart from a few multiculturalist niceties about the cultural and economic contribution of Arab immigrants to America, Powell was belligerently defensive of Bush administration policy. The prominent audience, including Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and a host of top officials from around nine Arab countries, was embarrassed by the note Powell struck. The huge crowd of Arab-Americans alongside intellectuals and businessmen from the Arab world also cringed at Powell's cheek in blithely dismissing Arab concerns about the situations in Palestine and Iraq. "This was a very harsh speech. He only stopped short of threatening to declare military strikes against us," commented one outraged Arab-American woman. Similar views were expressed by participating Arab officials who were disappointed -- to say the least -- by Powell's surly attitude. "This speech threw an unnecessary dark shadow over this conference that was doing so well in highlighting the many possibilities of Arab-American relations and the excellent job that Arab-Americans are playing to bridge the cultural differences between our two worlds," said an anonymous official. To his credit, Powell denied the existence of a "clash of civilisations"; however, he blamed Muslim and Arab "prophets of doom" as responsible for promoting this theory. Speaking less than 12 hours after Powell, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal undertook the task of responding to these harsh lines of US foreign policy. To the pleasure of an impressed audience, Al-Faisal stressed the Israeli role in introducing a culture of violence, proclaiming that the region had "lived with no violence before the Israeli problem", further blaming the Palestine issue for the fairly high military expenditures straining Arab budgets. Al-Faisal also insisted that Arabs are independently pursuing reform and development while "maintaining their own social cohesion". Giving one example of reform in his country, the Saudi foreign minister announced that his ministry will finally admit female diplomats into the foreign service. Criticising Washington for its restrictions in granting American visas to Saudis, Al-Faisal argued that it is "people to people contact" and the building and maintenance of "trust" that counts most for the possibilities of reform in the Arab world and of improving Arab-US dialogue. Addressing a luncheon on economic opportunities in the Middle East, with a special focus on the Middle East Free Trade Area, Catherine Novelli, assistant US trade representative for Europe and the Mediterranean openly said that the US is going to keep on blocking Saudi progress with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) until Riyadh succumbs to some of the American-prescribed demands for economic and even political and cultural reform. "The US support of countries to join the WTO sometimes requests the settlement of standing political issues," she said. Building understanding through a closer Arab-US dialogue was essentially the main theme of the three-day conference. Held under the campy slogan of "One world ... Two cultures ... Infinite possibilities", the conference debated a set of issues including economic reform, human development and cultural exchange. "More than any time before in the long history of interaction between Arabs and Americans, we need to recognise the urgency of dialogue," said Arab League Secretary-General Moussa in an opening speech. According to Moussa "Dialogue is the only means by which we Arabs and Americans can appreciate 'otherness', through mutual understanding and the creation of new perceptions and ever-expanding partnerships". Of the long list of issues on the programme of the US-Arab Economic Forum, Moussa chose to highlight two issues: women's empowerment and education reform. "There is a growing awareness among us that Arab societies have been lagging behind in terms of women's empowerment and participation," Moussa acknowledged. Arguing that "notable efforts in this respect have been undertaken by governments and civil society alike," such as with the establishment of the Arab Women's Organisation as "a pan-Arab umbrella institution working to promote the role of women and their rights across the Arab world", Moussa admitted that "much still needs to be done". To this end, Moussa called for support from the conference for the establishment of an "Arab-American forum or committee for women" with the objective of promoting women's empowerment in the Arab world. Moussa also called for the conference's support for the establishment of an Arab-American forum for information technology "with the objective of drawing up a programme of action aimed at bridging digital divide". Such an effort, he suggested, should be of value to the Arab efforts towards educational reform. Moussa's opinions and calls were supported by many of the speakers addressing the event. Women and education were indeed high on the list of priorities of most speakers, including business leaders concerned with creating a more competitive economic environment in the Middle East. Most important of all, the need for inter-cultural tolerance seemed to have been generally recognised by the conference participants.
