President Obama Does First Formal TV Interview as President with Al-Arabiya
By Jack Trapper, ABC's Sr. White House Correspondent
ABC News
January 26, 2009 6:29 PM
As special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell heads off to the region to begin work on negotiating a cease fire between Israel and the Palestinians, President Obama has sat for his first formal TV interview with the Arabic cable TV network Al-Arabiya, ABC News has learned. The interview was taped this evening and is set to air at 11 pm ET, as Mitchell is in the air and on his way to the region. Based in Dubai, Al-Arabiya estimates that it has a potential audience exceeding 23 million in the Gulf region.
p2) Mitchell leaves for the Middle East tonight; he will visit Cairo, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Amman, Riyadh, Paris and London. Gaza is not on the itinerary, at least the public one. (See video announcement)
Monday, January 26, 2009
Obama's Al-Arabiya interview
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Received via email 2/1/08...
Obama’s Message to Muslims Called ‘Pathetic’ - In his interview with a Saudi-owned TV channel on Tuesday, President Barack Obama referred to “an illusionary past” in the Muslim world that was in fact plagued by turmoil, a leading Middle Eastern expert declared.
Amir Taheri, in a New York Post column headlined “Pathetic Message,” said Obama “looked to the past rather than the future” when he told an Al-Arabiya interviewer he wanted a return to “the same respect and partnership that America
had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago.”
But 30 years ago, Taheri noted, American diplomats were being held hostage in Iran, Soviet troops were seeking to annex Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein was preparing to invade Iran, Saudi Arabia was under siege by Muslim militants, and Syrian troops were preparing to invade Lebanon.
Iranian-born Taheri, whose books include “Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism,” wrote in the Post that “other features of this ‘golden age’” were “the seizure of power by mullahs in Tehran, the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the coming to power of communists in the Horn of Africa, the military coup in Turkey, the first Islamist terror attacks in Algeria, unprecedented waves of repression
in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the imposition of military rule in Pakistan.”
Twenty years ago saw the U.S. arming the mujahedin in fghanistan, Iraq gassing thousands of Kurds and preparing to invade Kuwait, Iranian mullahs arming Hezbollah units in Lebanon, Turkey launching all-out attacks on Kurdish secessionists, and the Libyan terror network killing American soldiers in Europe and blowing up U.S. jets.
Meanwhile Obama offered only “trite” remarks regarding the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and did not offer any support “to democratic forces facing crucial elections in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Algeria,” observed Taheri, who has written for more than two dozen publications around the world.
“Nor was there any nod toward reformers in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.”
Obama sought to portray himself as a “bridge” between the U.S. and the Muslim world, according to Taheri, who added:
“Casting himself in the role of a ‘bridge’ and dreaming of a return to an illusionary past, Obama appeared unsure of his own identity and confused about the role that America should play in global politics.”
(Hat tip: Pat Wills)
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