Washington Looks Away As Political Reform Stagnates

Some of the US' longest-standing regional allies have recently felt the ill wind of shifting US foreign policy trends. On a visit to the region in mid-June, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointedly accused Saudi Arabia and Egypt - the pro-Western bulwarks of US influence in the Middle East - of democratic failings, seemingly a direct challenge to these key allies to ratchet up their reform programmes. But friends of a shorter lifespan, like Libya, appear immune to the White House's tongue-lashings, despite similarly dubious credentials on the democracy and human rights fronts.

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