Obama administration signals break with past to Muslim, Arab worlds

Washington Post

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has launched a determined effort to change the tone, if not yet the substance, of U.S. relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds, saying he is eager to listen to their concerns and acknowledging that Americans “have not been perfect” in their dealings with them.

The early appointments of presidential emissaries to the Middle East and to Afghanistan and Pakistan; the announced closure of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; the choice of Arab satellite network al-Arabiya for the first formal interview of his presidency; first-week National Security Council meetings on Iraq and Afghanistan; and telephone calls to regional leaders on his first full day in office were reflections both of the seriousness of the issues and a message to governments and the public, administration officials said.

Obama’s initial conversation with one Middle East leader conveyed little of substance, that country’s Washington ambassador said. “He just wanted to reach out on the first day as a sign and demonstration of his determination to engage.”

Although Obama told al-Arabiya that “we’re going to follow through on our commitment for me to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital,” the 100-day deadline he initially set for the speech is unlikely to be kept, an official said. A venue has not been chosen, Obama’s schedule is focused on pressing domestic concerns, and a flurry of must-attend international summits will take place in April.

The White House is hoping that its energetic early days — and the rapid dispatch of Middle East envoy George Mitchell and Afghanistan-Pakistan representative Richard Holbrooke on their own first regional trips — will send the desired message about relations with the Muslim world at home and abroad while the new administration begins to determine what its actual policies will be on the ground.

“My job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives,” Obama said in the interview. “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.”

In a meeting with Jewish leaders early last year, candidate Obama described communications as “the battlefield we have to worry about ... where we have been losing badly over the last seven years” of the Bush administration.

“We’re not going to wait until the end of my administration to deal with Palestinian and Israeli peace,” Obama told al-Arabiya, “We’re going to start now. It may take a long time to do, but we’re going to do it now.”

Responses so far to Obama’s outreach have been largely positive, but further action is awaited. Obama’s desire for “a strong and fruitful relationship with the Arab world” was a “positive development,” Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told Saudi-owned al-Arabiya.