A Model for the Region

an interview with Salameh Nematt

Bitter Lemons (used w/permission).

BI: How would you assess recent United States foreign policy successes and failures?

Nematt: I think that in the long run what the United States did in Iraq is of historic proportions, at least in the Middle East region. There is no question that getting rid of Saddam Hussein was a major achievement and a very important message to other dictatorships and regimes in the region. Americans don't see the value of that, because they take their freedoms for granted. But from a Middle Eastern perspective, this is very important.

The problem is that there is a lot of confusion as to what the United States is trying to do, and skepticism as to the motives of the US action. From my perspective, regardless of what the main motives are, I believe that the war in Iraq, and even the war in Afghanistan, had more to do with securing strategic US interests and energy interests than anything else. But the most important thing is the outcome: we got rid of one dictatorship. This is bound to be good for the people. Nobody can argue that keeping a dictatorship is better than getting rid of it.

We are already seeing, only a couple of months after the downfall of the Iraqi regime, 100 to 120 newspapers publishing there, which is unheard of. These newspapers don't need licensing from any authority. This has never happened before in the Arab world. Most governments just manipulate the media and make sure that no one can publish or broadcast anything without permission or official control.

And I think that, as time goes by, the situation will be resolved in Iraq. Those who are fighting to make the American project fail are bound to realize that because they don't have the support of the majority of the Iraqi people, they will fail. The sooner the Americans hand over control to the Iraqis the better. They [the Iraqis] know the trouble and know how to handle it.

BI: What about the banning of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya televisions stations by the Governing Council? How can the US mediate between controlling the situation, on the one hand, and on the other, allowing freedoms to take root?

Nematt: We have to understand that freedom and democracy do not mean allowing people to incite for murder. What Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera have been doing is providing a forum for unidentified terrorist groups to appear masked on TV and basically tell people to go and commit murder--just for the purpose of destruction. I think this act makes them partners in the crime, and I wouldn't call that journalism.

I think if these people are doing something legitimate, they would have a legitimate political representation who would then hold press conferences. There are many people inside and outside Iraq that oppose the US presence and oppose US policy and are saying it publicly. What [the Governing Council] did by banning these two channels for a period of several weeks from taping their official functions was to say that democracy and freedom of expression have their own rules and regulations.

BI: Being there in Washington, how do you see Americans experiencing their encounter with Iraq and the Middle East region?

Nematt: It is really unfortunate that there are many Americans who do not understand the importance of pursing this project in Iraq and the Middle East. What happened on September 11, and what happened in attacks on Europe should be a message that we can no longer live comfortably in free and democratic countries, while such big problems happen to our neighbors. If the western world does not approach a problem and solve it, it will come back to haunt them. Your neighbors are bound to hit back because they want the same that you have. It is a very complex dynamic that created these problems in the Middle East.

BI: What do you think are the key projects that the Americans can hope to "grow" in the Middle East?

Nematt: I think that the United States is not clear on what it wants to do, how it wants to transform the Middle East and what would be too intrusive. I think that Iraq is going to be a model for the region, other than Iraq acting aggressively to undermine other regimes. I believe that the media in Iraq is going to play an important role in exposing dictatorships in the region. There was an example of that in the late eighties when Jordan started a democratization process that had an effect on other countries in the region. The Kuwaiti's, after dissolving parliament, revised themselves. In Syria, which was threatened by the Jordanian democracy, Jordan television was banned and they really tried to shield themselves. The hope is that Iraq will be the next catalyst for democratization and I hope that it will have a much bigger impact on the region.

BI:Would you expect Iraq to make peace with Israel?

Nematt: Yes, I believe that Iraq is definitely going to move in that direction. The new Iraq is going to be a peaceful one and is going to play a central role in the Arab-Israeli conflict. In that sense, Iraq will be taking a leadership position, at the expense of the Egyptian and Jordanian role.

Within four to five years, we will be looking at an Iraq that is dynamic and improving economically. There will continue to be problems related to the aftermath of war, but we are going to have a very influential Iraq. In five years time, we will begin to see a country that is taking its place in the region and backed by the United States and backed by Western democracies, Iraq is going to emerge as the superpower of the Arab world.

-Published 2/10/03