Obama speaks of American partnership in Middle East
Regional-USA, Politics, 1/28/2009

US President Barack Obama says that the United States "offers a hand of friendship" to the Middle East and broader Muslim world and wants a new relationship firmly rooted in mutual respect and mutual interests. "What you'll see is someone who is listening," he said.

"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect," Obama said in a January 26 interview with the Dubai-based Saudi satellite network al-Arabiya — his first interview since taking office. "America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."

While Obama made history as the first African-American US president, he is also its first leader who spent several childhood years living in Indonesia — the world's largest Muslim country — a period he described in two best-selling memoirs, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope.

"I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries," Obama said. "In all my travels throughout the Muslim world, what I've come to understand is that regardless of your faith — and America is a country of Muslims, Jews, Christians, nonbelievers — regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams."

Obama's interview came as he dispatched special envoy George Mitchell to the Middle East, a move that reflects his administration's commitment to consolidating a fragile cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and renewing America's commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We're not going to wait until the end of my administration to deal with Palestinian and Israeli peace, we're going to start now," Obama said. "I think it is possible for us to see a Palestinian state... that is contiguous, that allows freedom of movement for its people, that allows for trade with other countries, that allows the creation of businesses and commerce so that people have a better life," Obama said.

A former Senate leader, veteran Northern Ireland peacemaker and author of an influential 2001 report on Middle East peace, Mitchell is traveling to Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, according to State Department spokesman Robert Wood.

"What I told him is start by listening because all too often the United States starts by dictating," Obama said. "The bottom line in all these talks and all these conversations is: is a child in the Palestinian Territories going to be better off? Do they have a future for themselves? And is the child in Israel going to feel confident about his or her safety and security? And if we can keep our focus on making their lives better and look forward, and not simply think about all the conflicts and tragedies of the past, then I think that we have an opportunity to make real progress," Obama said.

Rebuilding the peace process will take time and close diplomatic cooperation with Quartet partners Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, Obama said, as well as a willingness to come together with Arab leaders to consider the broader challenges facing the Middle East.

"It is impossible for us to think only in terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not think in terms of what's happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan. These things are interrelated," Obama said. "What we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions that have existed and have built up over the last several years. And I think if we do that, then there's a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs."

Actions speak louder than words, Obama said, pointing to other immediate efforts to set a new policy direction by moving forward on a troop drawdown in Iraq, as well as refining US counterterrorism efforts by closing the Guantánamo Bay detention center and confronting the false view promoted by many extremists that America's struggle against terrorism is a so-called "war on Islam."

The United States must also be "willing to talk to Iran," Obama said, pledging that his administration would outline a framework for those discussions over long-standing differences in the next several months.

"Iran has acted in ways that's not conducive to peace and prosperity in the region: their threats against Israel; their pursuit of a nuclear weapon which could potentially set off an arms race in the region that would make everybody less safe; their support of terrorist organizations in the past — none of these things have been helpful," Obama said. "As I said during my inauguration speech, if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us."

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