Washington -

The list of invitees to the Democracy Summit, which will be hosted by the US President next month, on the 9th and 10th, showed that there is only one Arab country in the list of participating countries.

Al Jazeera Net reviewed the list of invitees to this first virtual summit of its kind, which includes 108 countries, and was compiled by Politico.

Participation in this summit is not limited to countries only, but many civil society organizations and technology companies are expected to participate as well.

Biden aides still make up the agenda for the Democratic summit.

More broadly, the body of thought underscores Biden's view that strengthening the world's democracies at a time of increasing authoritarianism requires tools that go beyond mere rhetoric about free and fair elections.

With the exception of Iraq, all Arab countries were absent from this international conference.

The Middle East is among the least represented regions in this summit, with only Iraq and Israel participating.

The parliamentary elections that took place in Iraq last month, which were praised by the Biden administration and a large number of independent commentators and experts, prompted Iraq to join this summit.

The journalist Fareed Zakaria praised the Iraqi elections, and he recently wrote in the Washington Post an article entitled "Unappreciated success: Iraqi democracy."

Zakaria noted that only weeks after the tragic fall of Afghanistan, something important happened in the other country in which Washington has tried to rebuild the country over the past two decades.

"Iraq held elections, most of which were free and fair. If we assume that this process leads to the formation of a new government, it will be the sixth peaceful transfer of power since 2004," he said.


real progress

Zakaria pointed out that although the turnout was significantly low, these elections represent real progress that we can call a "political earthquake."

He referred to what he considered "a defeat for the militias and a victory for the Iraqi state," at a time when the elections witnessed "a clear rise in Sunni participation in the political process."

On the other hand, Washington has excluded countries that were "democratic" until weeks ago, such as Tunisia.

Tunisia was at the top of the list of democratic Arab countries, according to the criteria of Freedom House, which is concerned with democratic affairs and freedoms around the world.

However, after President Kais Saied's coup against the democratic process, Tunisia was excluded from the list.

Turkey was absent from the list of invited democratic countries, because of what Washington sees as a bad record for the Turkish government in confronting its internal opponents, and stifling the media.

Biden keeps his promise

President Joe Biden had pledged during his election campaign that his country would return to playing a leading role in its relationship with its allies around the world, and that during his first year in the White House he would host an international summit of democratic countries, where democratic leaders freely elected by their people would discuss ways to address corruption and authoritarian practices. As well as expanding the scope of human rights.

Through this summit, Washington aims to build a democratic international alliance to confront the successes achieved by non-democratic countries - especially China and Russia - in many economic, developmental, military and technological fields.

Some believe that Biden has failed in the democracy agenda, especially in the Middle East.

At a time when he pledged to differ from his predecessor, President Donald Trump, to maintain special and distinguished relations with countries that oppress their people and do not care about human rights records, Washington's interests pushed Biden and his administration to maintain the privacy of its relations with countries that violate human rights, and do not follow any recognized modern democratic standards.