Chapter VIII. Develop Agendas for Cooperative Action with the Other Main Centers of Global
Power
Section C. The Way Ahead - 3. Middle East
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The Broader Middle East continues to command the world's attention. For too long, too
many nations of the Middle East have suffered from a freedom deficit. Repression has
fostered corruption, imbalanced or stagnant economies, political resentments, regional
conflicts, and religious extremism. These maladies were all cloaked by an illusion of
stability. Yet the peoples of the Middle East share the same desires as people in the rest
of the world: liberty, opportunity, justice, order, and peace. These desires are now being
expressed in movements for reform. The United States is committed to supporting the
efforts of reformers to realize a better life for themselves and their region.
We seek a Middle East of independent states, at peace with each other, and fully
participating in an open global market of goods, services, and ideas. We are seeking to
build a framework that will allow Israel and the Palestinian territories to live side by side
in peace and security as two democratic states. In the wider region, we will continue to
support efforts for reform and freedom in traditional allies such as Egypt and Saudi
Arabia. Tyrannical regimes such as Iran and Syria that oppress at home and sponsor
terrorism abroad know that we will continue to stand with their people against their
misrule. And in Iraq, we will continue to support the Iraqi people and their historic
march from tyranny to effective democracy. We will work with the freely elected,
democratic government of Iraq our new partner in the War on Terror to consolidate
and expand freedom, and to build security and lasting stability.
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