Adviser: US needs to put better case to Muslims
US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in an Arab television interview that the United States is trying to do a better job of making its case to Muslims suspicious of the war on terrorism.
But Rice stood firmly behind Bush administration Middle East policies that have irritated Arabs and Muslims around the world.
"No, we believe that the policies that the United States is pursuing are ones that are good for the Middle East as a whole - populations that are Arab populations, as well as the population of Israel," Rice said in the interview with Al-Jazeera.
The network, based in the Gulf emirate Qatar, is widely watched throughout the region and has aired taped statements supplied by suspected terrorist kingpin Osama bin Laden and his associates.
The interview was part of an administration effort to cast America in a better light abroad, particularly among Muslims outraged at the week-old air war against bin Laden and his protector the Taliban, Afghanistan’s ruling militia.
Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld was to appear today on the Arab network, and officials said Bush was considering his own interview on Al-Jazeera.
A perceived pro-Israeli bias has long angered crucial Arab allies, as well as Muslims in Pakistan and Indonesia who view the Palestinians as victims of US policies.
While Rice told the interviewer the United States has no plan to review US policies in the volatile Middle East, she repeated recent comments by leaders of the administration in favour of statehood for Palestinians.
The administration had not articulated that goal until after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, as it tried to enlist support of Muslim allies for the campaign against terrorism.
Rice also reiterated that the anti-terrorism campaign is not aimed at Islam. The hijackers were mostly Arab Muslims, and Afghanistan is a non-Arab Muslim state.
"We think that the United States is a place in which religious tolerance and a belief that all people should live together in peace is a message that would resonate with populations in the region," she said. "And so we’re trying to do a better job in getting that message out to people."
Rice defended her request to US television networks to "exercise judgment" before airing videotaped statements from bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.
Such tapes, obtained by US networks from Al-Jazeera, "did nothing but incite hatred and ultimately attacks against innocent Americans," Rice said.
She did not mention suspicions raised by the administration last week that the statements could contain coded messages that would help terrorists co-ordinate their actions.
Asked at a news conference whether the administration found any evidence of coded messages, she said analysts were still studying the tapes.
