Speaker 6: My name is Marion, I am an Egyptian activist, I am a fellowship with Freedom House Organization and this is my first week at my internship at Rumi Forum.  I would like to thank you first for your informative presentation and I have just one quick question regarding the new shift or the apparently new shift in the American foreign policy especially towards the Middle East.  Do you think and of course regarding the way things are in the Middle East concerning democracy and human rights as well.  How do you see the future, US, Middle East relationships.  I am not talking about Iraq as a war zone or war situation, but I am talking about the US foreign policy concerning apparently stable countries in the Middle East and the relationships between these governments so how would you see the US relationships with these countries in the future and the effect of a possible American disinterest in change in these countries in supporting democracy in these countries and my second part of the question is you mentioned something very important is that there are hopes that someday there would be different powers in the world, would deal with the US as friends not just zero something relationship, would that ever exist in the Middle East sometimes in the future that the US government would deal with governments in the Middle East especially as friends?  Thank you.

Speaker 2: Well there were lots of questions and I can’t pretend to and be a great expert on all of these issues.  Every country has its own history and its own problems.  I guess if I had to make some kind of general prescription, which happily I don’t.  I think our policy would be better if we were less focused on military questions.  I think not that all those questions can be ignored, but the better solution would be the kind of thing that European Union does try to do which is to build up regional economic cooperation to try to improve the living conditions of countries and to put them somehow in a more positive path.  That being said people have to do this to themselves.  I mean outside powers can encourage, they can facilitate maybe sometimes they can enable, but I think the spark has to come from within and maybe one of our problems is that we carry the spark.

Speaker 1:  Thank you all very much indeed.