Obama needs to understand Egypt/Syria's view of the US Presidency

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Obama needs to understand Egypt

Egypt’s pro-government Al Ahram daily ran an opinion piece by Muhammad Sabreen saying Barack Obama’s team is characterised by its wish to change the image of the United States and some of the policies adopted by President Bush’s administration.

“I believe that Mr Obama’s administration will need Egypt, given the Egyptian vision regarding the foolishness of the invasion of Iraq and the necessity to resolve the Palestinian problem that Obama has described as the ‘core of the conflict in the Middle East’,” he wrote.

“Moreover, Egyptian diplomacy enjoys a long history of dealing with the problems in Africa, which could alleviate the tensions in the continent.”

It became clear under Bush’s term that regional powers such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia could not be ignored in dealing with key regional issues, Sabreen wrote.

“Among the most important issues in this regard, is probably co-operation at the level of the prevention of nuclear deployment and the submission of Israel to an inspection mechanism.”

A Syrian measure of the US Presidency

President-elect Obama reached out to peoples beyond oceans, even at the height of his victory, and to people in forgotten places, to those huddled around radios by saying “our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared”, Syrian Presidential Advisor for Political and Media Affairs Dr Bouthaina Shaaban wrote on November 13 in the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al Awsat.

“This is a great first glimpse of a new president of the United States of America, but there’s no doubt that the challenges facing him are many.”

The first challenge facing president-elect Obama in his foreign strategies is to understand the plight of those in the Middle East, she wrote in the UK-based paper.

“The president-elect should see the entire story and thus he should visit Gaza and the West Bank to see the other face of Israel and not only the face presented to him by the Israeli lobby in Washington,” Shaaban wrote.

“The issue is not just to be a president, but what to do with the presidency, how many lives you save, how many rights you return and how much justice you are able to bring to the world.”

Source: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081115...emplate=opinion

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

Thanks for the read Olivia.

On a side note: I just hope that Americans dont think just bcz Obama got elected that the rest of the world is going to be our friends now.

[S and S 12]

Good article. Thanks for sharing. Obama has a lot to learn about the middle east if he is to deal with it in the right manner and get relations on the right track. Not an easy task for anyone to undertake.

Thanks for the read Olivia.

On a side note: I just hope that Americans dont think just bcz Obama got elected that the rest of the world is going to be our friends now.

They aren't????