Rice in a pressure cooker

It is the lot of somebody trying to peddle something that no-one wants to buy is in for a hard time. Condi's sweep through the sandy, sunny Middle East hit the buffers again today when she visited sun drenched Saudi - the desert Kingdom to whom Democracy is a quaint Western concept.

Saudi Arabia will not deny aid to a Palestinian government led by Hamas, the Saudi foreign minister told the visiting US secretary of state. reports the BBC.

Prince Saud al-Faisal told Condoleezza Rice that aid to the Palestinians should be based on humanitarian needs.

"(Saudi Arabia) hopes that international aid for the Palestinian people should be linked only with the pressing humanitarian need of this people," he said.

Stopping aid for a sewerage system infrastructure, which is the sort of project the United States wants to be starved of funding, was effectively denying Palestinians humanitarian help, he added.

Senior U.S. officials traveling with Rice to lobby against Hamas were at a loss to cite any country that has pledged to the United States it will immediately end aid when the group takes over the government in the next few weeks.

"Different countries will have different modalities and how to deal with this. For the United States, Hamas is a terrorist organization. We cannot give funding to a terrorist organization," she said.

She is getting a terrible press as well .. the English language Lebanon Daily Star..
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=17&article_id=22328
U.S. hypocrisy hangs over Rice's Middle East trip

"How can America be committed to freedom and simultaneously remain quiet about Israel's continued illegal occupation of Palestinian territories? How can the U.S. promote human rights and at the same time allow the torture of Arab prisoners, many of whom have been held in Abu Ghraib [prison in Baghdad] and Guantánamo Bay for years without charge or trial? How can Washington support democracy while encouraging Arab states to sanction the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people? Contradictory policies such as these only play into the hands of extremists."

Independent London based al-Quds al-Arabi says ..

'This scandalous contradiction in American foreign policy is what makes the Bush administration hated so much in the Arab and Muslim world and makes many not believe the repeated American claims on democratic reforms and fighting corruption,' the paper opined. It said Rice`s tour was very important because it provides an opportunity for the U.S.-allied Arab regimes, especially Saudi Arabia and Egypt, 'to tell her enough stupid and destructive adventures and that what`s needed is some reason and dialogue because there`s high tension in the region that only needs a flint to make it explode.'

Saudi financed, London based al-Hayat commented that while there is a lot of attention on Iran`s nuclear program, Rice`s agenda during her visit to some Arab countries this week was to add pressure on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

The paper says it was strange that Washington claims to want to encourage democracy, but ignores the fact that Hamas won a democratic election and that the majority of Palestinian society is struggling against Israeli occupation.

'Rice is not coming to consult on what America can do to confront Hamas because (the visit) is preceded by a decision to halt financial assistance for Palestinian infrastructure projects,' it said, 'she is coming to encourage those she meets to imitate the American and Israeli position.'

Of course this is the lady who said Hamas' victory "came out of the blue" .... someone in her Department was not doing their job.