Clinton says some Arab changes may come slowly – Especially if the US isn’t selling you weapons or pumping your oil – No payolla for US hegemony, sorry no democracy

Clinton says some Arab changes may come slowly
By Bradley Klapper – Associated Press – October 11, 2011

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration’s top diplomat suggested Tuesday that the Arab Spring has entered difficult and uncharted territory between dictatorship and democracy, and that some changes would have to come slowly.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States would continue to pressure long-time leaders to leave power in Syria and Yemen, and ensure chaos is averted in Egypt, where demonstrators have succeeded in ousting an autocrat. But she cautioned against overly optimistic forecasts for how quickly each country could make its break with the past.

“How long? When?” Clinton said about possible regime change in Syria. “I cannot predict these to you.”

The message was similar for ending Yemen’s civil strife as for ensuring that Egypt makes a successful transition in its post-Hosni Mubarak era toward real democracy. She said each country faces difficult challenges.

On Syria, she voiced support for the burgeoning opposition against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but said the primarily Sunni protesters “have a lot of work to do internally” toward becoming a truly national opposition movement that also represents the aspirations of Syria’s minorities.

“It is not yet accepted by many groups within Syria that their life will be better without Assad than with Assad,” Clinton said. “There are a lot of minority groups that are very concerned.”

She urged the anti-Assad camp to maintain the “moral high ground” of nonviolence and reach out to Syria’s minorities, and expressed optimism that the tide was turning against Syria’s government.

She pointed specifically to last week’s assassination of Mashaal Tammo, a Kurdish opposition leader. Tammo’s son has since called on members of his ethnic group to join the 7-month uprising against the Assad regime, and Clinton predicted a similar shift from Druze, Christians, business leaders and other groups who have so far been reluctant to join the revolution.

Tammo’s killing “seems to have been just a spark to the tinder because that goes right at one of those groups that up until now had been kind of on the sidelines,” she said. “As this goes on, I really believe there will be more support for change.”

But the U.S. cannot speed that process along. “It cannot be accelerated from the outside,” Clinton told the AP. “The single message that comes through loudly and clearly from everyone associated with the opposition is that they do not want foreign intervention.”

Clinton suggested the U.S. was facing a similar period of waiting with Yemen, where American, Arab and European officials are trying to persuade President Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave power.

Eight months of mass protests has evolved into an armed standoff between government and opposition forces, though Clinton said the situation hasn’t descended into an all-out civil war. Saleh, in power since 1978, recently returned from three months of treatment in Saudi Arabia after being severely wounded in an attack on his presidential palace, and has offered no concrete indication that he is willing to step down. …more