U.S. warns Malaysia's 'sharp-tongued' leaders

U.S. warns Malaysia's 'sharp-tongued' leaders

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

The U.S. envoy to Malaysia gave the Southeast Asian nation's
leaders a public warning on Wednesday that relations will go
downhill unless they curb their sometimes "offensive" criticism
of Washington's foreign policy.

While other friendly countries also disagreed with the war in
Iraq, Malaysian leaders upset senior members of the U.S.
administration with the tone of their rebukes, Ambassador Marie
Huhtala said in a speech released on the embassy's Web site.

"These are not helpful statements by any standard, and I'm
here to tell you that Washington does take note of them. They are
bound to have a harmful effect on the relationship," she said.

"Some of the public statements by senior Malaysian officials
have castigated the U.S. in antagonistic, occasionally offensive,
terms."

The United States is mostly-Muslim Malaysia's largest single
trading partner and the two governments have long standing,
strong ties in the areas of defense and security.

Huhtala gave the speech, in which she pleaded for relations to
be restored to the warm levels of a year ago, at a business forum
last Friday. The media was barred from covering the event.

Malaysian officials say that earlier this year Washington
threatened to withdraw its ambassador in reaction to Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad's address to the Non-Aligned Movement
summit in Kuala Lumpur, when he trod on U.S. sensitivities over
the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Malaysia is a loud critic of U.S. policy over Iraq and Israel.
Earlier this month the sharp tongued Mahathir mocked the United
States for becoming "afraid of its own shadow" after issuing a
travel advisory warning U.S. citizens against a possible
terrorist threat in Malaysia.

Huhtala did not single out Mahathir, who is due to retire in
October after 22 years in power, but alluded to his summit
speech. Next week Mahathir attends the Group of Eight Summit in
France.

In contrast, Huhtala said Washington appreciated Deputy Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's address to the nation at the
outset of the Iraq war, when he told Malaysians not to vent their
anger on U.S. businesses or citizens.

Abdullah is Mahathir's designated successor and is expected to
be less acerbic is his criticism of the United States.