At a pointless conference in Morocco, Colin Powell told Arab leaders that they must reform their despotic governments to combat terrorism: Reform Needed in Arab World to Defeat Terror-US.

Arabs and Europeans, however, prefer to continue blaming everything on Israel and the US.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, dismissing any ideas of “clashes of civilizations” between the Western and Arab worlds, said “the real bone of contention” was a perceived bias on the part of the United States toward Israel.

“It remains to be seen if for the first time we can be honest with each other and commit ourselves to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he told delegates.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana agreed, but in different terms. “The problem of insecurity in Iraq and the peace process in the Middle East need to take momentum” to ensure ideas floated at the forum bear fruit, he told Reuters.

UPDATE at 12/11/04 8:17:42 am:

And get a load of this paragraph:

While ministers talked behind closed doors, about 150 human rights activists and Islamists tried to stage a sit-in outside the Foreign Ministry building.

Human rights activists together with Islamists? Strange bedfellows indeed.