An excerpt from Obama's interview (brief commercial at the start).
WASHINGTON — With the Middle East still roiling over Israel's three-week intervention in Gaza, President Barack Obama dispatched his new Middle East peace envoy, George Mitchell, to the region on Monday with a call for "genuine progress," and "not just photo ops."
The move came just hours before Obama granted his first full TV interview since being sworn in -- to Arabic satellite TV channel al Arabiya, whose Dubai-based signal reached 23 million viewers in the Middle East.
In the interview, Obama reaffirmed American support for Israel. But he also spoke of a "new partnership" with the Arab world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest."
He also made it clear that he was in a unique position as an American leader in dealing with the Muslim world. "I have Muslim members of my family," he said. "I have lived in Muslim countries."
The interview was the second time since becoming president that Obama has made a point to reach out to the Arab world. Last week, his first call to a foreign leader went to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Before the interview, Obama emphasized that Mitchell was "fully empowered" to speak for the White House, a departure from the diplomacy of his predecessor, George W. Bush, and a calculated signal of serious intent to Israeli and Arab leaders.
State Department officials said Mitchell's mission has three goals.
He will listen to regional leaders' views on an eventual Israeli-Palestinian settlement. But negotiations begun by former President George W. Bush are in limbo until Israeli elections two weeks from now, and polls show former prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes compromise, as the frontrunner.
More immediately, Mitchell will try to stabilize an unofficial cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip following a month of fighting that left hundreds of Palestinians dead and billions of dollars in damage.
Obama's broader peace initiative "is not going to take off" unless the cease-fire can be strengethened, said a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Read on.
2 comments:
I was impressed with Obama's speech to the Middle East and things might work out with an honest President now. The GOP is so angry about this they love conflict because it brings in money for War profiteering.
This is a postive move that will show the Arab world that we are going to work with other countries and not prejudge, as in the past calling others the axis of evil and other things.
As other countries have posters of Bush drinking blood, and as of late with a nice big footprint on his face, so far no unflattering posters of Obama.
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