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Rice Criticizes Allies In Call for Democracy
Secretary Rice meets with reformers in Cairo, where she also had mild praise for President Hosni Mubarak, saying he had "unlocked the door for change."
(By Amr Nabil -- Associated Press)
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After the address, Rice met for nearly an hour with Ayman Nour, the Egyptian opposition candidate whose campaign has been repeatedly harassed by the government, as well as seven other representatives of opposition parties and civil groups. There were no representatives from Kifaya, or Enough, the coalition of human rights, professional and legal organizations that began a drive last fall to unseat Mubarak.
In February, Rice canceled a planned visit to Egypt when the government did not immediately release Nour from jail on what U.S. officials said were trumped-up charges.
While in Egypt, Rice met with Mubarak at Sharm el-Sheikh, a resort area on the Sinai Peninsula. After the session, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters that the Egyptian government was committed to "free, fair and transparent" elections.
In Riyadh, the Saudi capital, Rice met with Crown Prince Abdullah, the kingdom's de facto ruler, and other officials. She later told reporters that she had raised the issue of the three jailed petitioners with the crown prince, reiterating that their actions "should not be a crime." But the foreign minister, Prince Saud Faisal, responded that they had broken Saudi laws and that the matter was therefore in the "hands of the court." Saud, who said he had not read a transcript of Rice's Cairo speech, asserted that Saudi Arabia would undertake reform at its own pace and in accordance with its traditions.
"I don't understand what the row is about, asking what type of reforms and what speed of reforms," Saud said.
Rice delivered her 25-minute speech in Cairo in workmanlike fashion, eliciting no applause from the audience of 600 until it was completed. She then took questions for 40 minutes.
After one questioner raised the reported mistreatment of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, by U.S. soldiers, Rice said the United States was built by people who fled religious persecution and that it "would never sanction for its personnel to somehow disrespect the great book of a great religion." She said the incidents involving the Koran were "overwhelmingly, simply mistakes by people, not intentioned." Her response brought loud applause.
As is her style, Rice was forceful in the question-and-answer session in both defending U.S. policy and acknowledging shortcomings in the U.S. past. At one point, she cited the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who she said was responsible for her having the position she holds now. He "always talked about making America true to ourselves," she said.
