woensdag 28 januari 2009

Obama 79

'Obama reaches out to Iran with message to Muslims Al-Arabiya is chosen for new President's first formal televised interview
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Barack Obama has extended a hand of peace to Iran, provided that it "unclench its fist" and has said the time is ripe for Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace negotiations.
For his first formal televised interview as President, Mr Obama choseal-Arabiya, the pan-Arab voice of political reform, to send a powerful and conciliatory signal to the Muslim world. There was a striking shift in tone and substance from his predecessor George Bush, who branded Iran part of the "Axis of Evil" and rejected face-to-face talks with America's enemies.
Mr Obama offered dialogue with Tehran and promised a new American readiness to listen to those who oppose it in the Middle East.
It is "important for us to be willing to talk to Iran, to express very clearly where our differences are but where there are potential avenues for progress," he said, echoing his inaugural address last week when he declared, "If countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us."
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, underscored the gesture, saying yesterday it was now up to Iran to "engage meaningfully," by making the first move. Washington accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons, but Iran says its atomic programme is designed with energy production in mind.
The two countries have not had direct diplomatic relations for three decades and yesterday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari told reporters in Athens that it was too early to say whether relations would improve with Mr Obama as president. "We will wait and see [if there is] change or just slogans," he said.
The interview with Dubai-based al-Arabiya was recorded on Monday. Mr Obama appeared to go out of his way to rebrand America's image in the Muslim world, declaring: "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy."
Then, with words never previously heard from a US president, he said: "I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries... the largest one, Indonesia. And so what I want to communicate is the fact that, 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, non-believers – regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams."
Mr Obama's selection of al-Arabiya over its better-known rival al-Jazeera or the US-funded network al-Hurra emphasised his desire to reach out to the Muslim world without seeming to pander to America's fiercest critics.
al-Arabiya – founded in 2003 in deliberate counterpoint to al-Jazeera, which its Saudi Arabian founders saw as too sympathetic to the Jihadist cause – has an audience of 23 million.
Hady Amr, director of the Brookings Doha Centre, an arm of the US think-tank in the Qatari capital, described the decision to make the first presidential interview with an Arabic news network as "stunning." He said:
"President Obama has made it absolutely clear... that a central priority will be repairing America's relations with the Muslim world. If that's his objective, I'd say he's been hitting home run after home run."'

2 opmerkingen:

Anoniem zei

Als Obama echt oprecht is om te proberen vrede te bewerkstelligen voor de Palestijnen, want niemand kan mij wijsmaken dat Israel niet in vrede leeft (ok, ze kunnen geraakt worden met een grote vuurpijl, maar dat hebben wij hier met oud en nieuw ook), dan heeft hij een zware kluif aan de israel lobby (aipac en christen-zionisten).

Het is moeilijk, maar het is te doen. Maar hij heeft het moeilijk gemaakt voor zichzelf door israel lobbiesten in zn regering op te nemen zoals Hillary (die een paar weken geleden in een pro-israel demonstratie liep terwijl op datzelfde moment Israel een kleine genocide aan t plegen was en Rahm Emanuel (wiens vader bij de zionistische terreur organisatie Irgun zat (blijkbaar in de VS geen aanleiding om iemand geen White house chief of staff te maken) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel.

Ik wens hem sterkte toe en met een hele goede strategie en kogelvrije vest moet hij ver kunnen komen.

yelamdenu zei

Met deze spinmeister weet je nooit hoe oprecht het allemaal is. De PR-machine van Obama is buitengewoon. Hij heeft een geniale toesprakenschrijver en hij kan het mooi zeggen.
Maar het enige wat je kunt doen is kijken naar zijn daden. Het enige wat we gezien hebben wat betreft daden is zijn gebrek daaraan bij één van de grootste diefstallen aller tijden, de zogeheten "bailout".
Wallstreet blies op het fluitje, en Obama danste. Zoekmachien daarvoor eens naar de commentaren van Michael Hudson, de grote econoom, op Obama (bijv. op Counterpunch) en zijn radiointerviews op o.a. Guns and Butter (Kpfa) en Democracy Now.

groeten,
herman_m

Peter Flik en Chuck Berry-Promised Land

mijn unieke collega Peter Flik, die de vrijzinnig protestantse radio omroep de VPRO maakte is niet meer. ik koester duizenden herinneringen ...