my name is hady amr, and i am at usa today and -- usaid. it is the governmental organizations that manages is our foreign aid. we talk about the arab spring, from attendees it to libya and -- tunisia to libya to egypt. i wanted offers some perspective from this white house about the events going on in the middle east. from the u.s. government perspective, we believe that we are inspired by the people of the middle east. you cannot hear me, ok. can you hear me better? we are inspired by the changes taking place in the middle east and that they're being driven by the people of the region, and the principle that we have at the administration are as follows. we oppose the use of violence by governments against their citizens and by citizens against their government. we stand for the universal rights of all people. and we support the political and economic responses -- reforms. i want to turn to some of the countries in the region. today the situation in syria is particularly troubling and our government, the united states, is concerned about th

[applause] >> on behalf of myself, i think khaled mattawa, hady amr, ashley ansara regency holdings.e thank you for joining us this afternoon. you've been wonderful. thank you very much. [applause] it. [inaudible conversations] found that [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the american urban discrimination committee continues its national convention through sunday. we will cover events on saturday and you can check c-span.org for some of our coverage plans. we can say about coverage plans this evening. outgoing defense secretary robert gates gave his final policy speech as defense secretary. he was speaking about the future of nato. he spoke in brussels, belgium today will have the speech for you tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. both houses of congress return for legislative work on monday 2:00 p.m. eastern. the senate taking up too judicious nominations followed by more work on economic development programs. the house resumes wo

so my name's hady amr, i'm the deputy assistant administrator'a for the middle east at usaid which is the united states agency for internationaltern development, the part of the united states government thaterm manages our foreign aid. and, you know, we talked about the arab spring and the songs of freedom in the arab spring from tunisia to libya to, you know, egypt, bahrain, yemen, syria. um, i wanted to offer some thoughts on the transformation from the perspective of this white house and this p administration about the changes going on in the middle east. first of all, from the u.s. e government perspective, yous. know, we believe that we are inspired by the people in the middle east. >> [inaudible] >> you can't hear. raise the mic, can you hear meu better?e is that better, guys? okay. so, you know, we're inspired by the changes taking place in the middle east and that they're being driven by the people ofeg the region ministration are as f. first and foremost, we oppose the use of violence by governments against their citizens and citizens against the government. the second is we

. >> hady amr tell us more about your perspectives. >> thanks for the kind of connection and i'm please to be here. can you guys hear me okay? i first attended, i think i first attended and adc convention more than 20 years ago and i probably last spoke at the agency convention 10 years ago so i'm really pleased to be here among folks that i know well. and when i think about that time period that has changed in 10 to 20 years and i think about my son. my wife and i had her first child this year and i think forward 10 to 20 years from now. i think about in the arab world that i hope will be one that is freer, more prosperous, more democratic, more dignified, more purchase vittori for its citizens and i also think about an arab-american community that can also grow in its participation in civil society here at home and in partnership with the arab world. so i mean as i am reflecting in the context of the transformation in the arab world and also in this context with adc, i hope we have a growing partnership of the arab-american community with the positive transformation underway in the ar