President Saleh urges Arab leaders to adopt democracy

SANA’A,(Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Arab states Sunday to adopt democratic reforms and bolster public participation in the decision making process. Addressing the opening ceremony of the 1st conference of the Association of Senates and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World, President Saleh said, “I hope regimes would induct democratic reforms and let their people’s participate in the decision making process.” “This is the era of dialogue, democracy and public participation in decision making, the era of dictatorships and monocracies is over,” President Saleh said. “We should patch up ourselves before others reform us … We should take lessons from what happened (to Iraq),” he added. But he said reforms should be initiated from inside the Arab countries “not from outside,” a clear reference to the U.S. reform project for the Middle East, known as the ‘Greater Middle East’. The Yemeni leader called for the immediate withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq and leaving the Iraqi people choose its ruling regime. He criticized the lack of stability in Iraq, saying that no security nor stability, freedom or democracy in Iraq, they were only slogans by Americans before the occupation of Iraq. KH/KM SABASABA