To promote peace and stability in the broader Middle East, the United States will work with our friends in the region to fight the common threat of terror, while we encourage a higher standard of freedom. Hopeful reform is already taking hold in an arc from Morocco to Jordan to Bahrain. The government of Saudi Arabia can demonstrate its leadership in the region by expanding the role of its people in determining their future. And the great and proud nation of Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East.
To promote peace in the broader Middle East, we must confront regimes that continue to harbor terrorists and pursue weapons of mass murder. Syria still allows its territory, and parts of Lebanon, to be used by terrorists who seek to destroy every chance of peace in the region. You have passed, and we are applying, the Syrian Accountability Act — and we expect the Syrian government to end all support for terror and open the door to freedom. [Transcript of State of the Union]
While the President asked Saudi Arabia opt for democracy, a very bold statement considering the relations between the President and the monarchy, he left our the major ally Pakistan. Since he was speaking in the context of the Middle East, he may have left out the major non-NATO ally. But still that is no excuse for letting one of the biggest proliferators and violators of democracy off the hook.
While on the subject of terrorism, most jihadists claim to be fighting for the rights of Muslims in various countries. In Iraq, Kashmir and Palestine, the voters choose their leaders, while the terrorist sponsors live in dictatorship or monarchy.
