Obama’s Ambition
3 years ago • 2 notesBarack Obama gave his first televison interview as president yesterday evening. And he did so to al-Arabiya, the Dubai-based satellite network that is one of the largest English-language TV outlets aimed at Arab audiences.
This is a first for an American president and a remarkable indication of Obama’s ambition. He is coming in fresh, looking to make an immediate positive impact in the seemingly intractable Arab-Israeli conflict.
In his talk, he clearly attempted to build bridges to Arab moderates stating his readiness “to initiate a new partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interest.” On the other hand, he isolated Muslim extremists and Al Qaeda specifically calling their ideas “bankrupt” and indicating that they’ve focused on “destruction rather than building.” In doing so, Obama laid the framework for building a coalition with moderate Arab states around the shared goals of regional stability and deemphasizing Iran and fundamentalist fringes.
Unclear if this will work or not of course, but the attempt is incredibly impressive. And either way it lays the appropriate groundwork for future U.S. action — positive or negative. This is a great first step.
