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Obama: US Must Listen Not Dictate To Middle-east
Riehl World View —
Peace, love and understanding. Yes, what is it Iran really means when it threatens to wipe Israel off the map? Hmm? The only thing I can think of that we have dictated to them is that some factions must renounce violence. How mean of us!
The first video segment below seemed to loop about 4 minutes in. When it does, fast forward to 7 minutes in and it picks up, again. Apparently Obama still plans to deliver an address from a Muslim capitol within his first 100 days.
Obama: And so what I told him (Mitchell) is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues -- and we don't always ...
Obama's First TV Interview
The Latest on Air America —
In his first formal interview since taking office, President Barack Obama sat down with Al-Arabiya TV's reporter Hisham Melhem in Washington to discuss conflicts in the Middle East, Bin Laden, and the possibility of nukes in Iran and Afghanistan. Transcript after the jump. Q Mr. President, thank you for this opportunity, we really appreciate it. President Barack Obama: Thank you so much. Q Sir, you just met with your personal envoy to the Middle East, Senator Mitchell. Obviously, his first task is to consolidate the cease-fire. But beyond that you've been saying that you want to pursue actively and aggressively peacemaking between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Tell us a little ...
The Al-Arabiya Move
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
It popped up on television last night and I had two reactions. The first was a sense of met expectation. Part of the rationale for Obama's presidency from a foreign policy perspective was always his unique capacity to rebrand America in the eyes of the Muslim world. Since even the hardest core neocons agree that wooing the Muslim center is critical to winning the long war against Jihadism, Obama's outreach is unremarkable and should be utterly uncontroversial. Bush tried for a while to do the same. But Karen Hughes is not exactly Barack Obama. And the simple gesture of choosing an Arab media outlet for his first ...
Al-Arabiya's Game Changing Interview with Barack Obama: A New Punctuation Point in US Foreign Policy
The Washington Note —
Hisham Melhem, Washington Bureau Chief for Al Arabiya, was trying to chase down an interview with former U.S. Senator and new presidential envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell. Pounding all of his channels, friends, networks, Melhem was informed Sunday that "something" might be in the works -- but keep expectations modest.
By Monday morning (yesterday), Melhem was told that he'd likely get Mitchell, and then later in the morning, he received a call telling him that he'd "either be very happy, or made miserable" by what the White House was planning. And then Melhem was asked if he would like ...
Steve Clemons: Al-Arabiya's Game Changing Interview with Barack Obama: A New Punctuation Point in US Foreign Policy
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
Hisham Melhem, Washington Bureau Chief for Al Arabiya, was trying to chase down an interview with former U.S. Senator and new presidential envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell. Pounding all of his channels, friends, networks, Melhem was informed Sunday that "something" might be in the works -- but keep expectations modest.
By Monday morning (yesterday), Melhem was told that he'd likely get Mitchell, and then later in the morning, he received a call telling him that he'd "either be very happy, or made miserable" by what the White House was planning. And then Melhem was asked if he would like ...
Obama on the Middle East
Informed Comment —
The transcript of President Obama's interview on al-Arabiya Television (Dubai)is at the latter's site and I will mirror it here, below. Just a few quick observations. Obama emphasized respect for the Muslim world, affirmed that the United States is not its enemy, and that, on the contrary, Washington has a stake in the well-being and prosperity of the Muslim world. He underlined that he has Muslim relatives and had lived in the largest Muslim country, Indonesia, as a child. So he established some strong connections. He also implicitly condemned the rhetoric of "Islamic fascism" used by the Bush administration and Republican politicians more ...
