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.