As reported by Reuters:
PARIS, Feb 19 (Reuters) -
Saudi Arabia and China diluted Western efforts on Saturday to have the Group of 20 major world economies offer support to Tunisia and Egypt in their transition to democracy, delegates said. The diplomatic wrangle came as authorities in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen used lethal force to try to quash anti-government protests inspired by the popular uprisings that ousted authoritarian rulers in Tunisia and Egypt.
G20 president France urged finance ministers and central bankers of countries representing 85 percent of global economic output to welcome the change in the two north African Arab states and declare their willingness to provide resources to help their interim governments during the transition. "In the shorter term, France will ask you to be ready to join forces to accompany our Tunisian and Egyptian friends on the road to democracy, in making economic and social progress," President Nicolas Sarkozy told them in a speech on Friday.
Delegates said the wording of the draft G20 communique had been considerably watered down to remove any welcome of the popular uprisings but leave the offer of help. Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy with no elected parliament, strongly opposed any endorsement of the popular uprisings that toppled Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, they said.
"This sort of talk makes people like the Saudis rather nervous," one Western delegate said. "Understandably, the Chinese are weighing in as well."
Beijing argued that the Middle East situation was a matter for foreign ministers, not finance chiefs, he said.
"This is the nature of the G20, where we have democracies but also less democratic governments," the delegate said.
Most Western leaders have welcomed the popular wave sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, but analysts are nervous of how further civil unrest, economic disruption and a surge in migration will affect the rest of the world.
France, the formal colonial power in Tunisia and an influential voice with big economic interests in the Middle East, wants to see stable democracies take root in both countries, where it long had close ties with the ousted rulers.
(Reporting by Paul Taylor and Catherine Bremer, editing by Mike Peacock)
PARIS, Feb 19 (Reuters) -
Saudi Arabia and China diluted Western efforts on Saturday to have the Group of 20 major world economies offer support to Tunisia and Egypt in their transition to democracy, delegates said. The diplomatic wrangle came as authorities in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen used lethal force to try to quash anti-government protests inspired by the popular uprisings that ousted authoritarian rulers in Tunisia and Egypt.
G20 president France urged finance ministers and central bankers of countries representing 85 percent of global economic output to welcome the change in the two north African Arab states and declare their willingness to provide resources to help their interim governments during the transition. "In the shorter term, France will ask you to be ready to join forces to accompany our Tunisian and Egyptian friends on the road to democracy, in making economic and social progress," President Nicolas Sarkozy told them in a speech on Friday.
Delegates said the wording of the draft G20 communique had been considerably watered down to remove any welcome of the popular uprisings but leave the offer of help. Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy with no elected parliament, strongly opposed any endorsement of the popular uprisings that toppled Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, they said.
"This sort of talk makes people like the Saudis rather nervous," one Western delegate said. "Understandably, the Chinese are weighing in as well."
Beijing argued that the Middle East situation was a matter for foreign ministers, not finance chiefs, he said.
"This is the nature of the G20, where we have democracies but also less democratic governments," the delegate said.
Most Western leaders have welcomed the popular wave sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, but analysts are nervous of how further civil unrest, economic disruption and a surge in migration will affect the rest of the world.
France, the formal colonial power in Tunisia and an influential voice with big economic interests in the Middle East, wants to see stable democracies take root in both countries, where it long had close ties with the ousted rulers.
(Reporting by Paul Taylor and Catherine Bremer, editing by Mike Peacock)
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