Obama offers hand of friendship to Muslim world
- 00:02:02
- ITN
Obama offers hand of friendship to Muslim world
US President Barack Obama has outlined his plans of finding peace in the Middle East in his first formal Arab TV interview. Speaking on al-Arabiya television, the president suggested that Israel and the Palestinians should continue their peace talks, praising Saudi King Abdullah for putting forward an Arab plan to bring peace to the region. Mr Obama also said that his team would adopt a more thorough approach in its relations with the Muslim world. He said: "It is impossible for us to think only in terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not think in terms of what's happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan. These things are interrelated." Mr Obama highlighted that his administration had begun to fulfill his campaign promises by naming former US Senator George Mitchell as a Mideast peace envoy and sending him out to the region for an eight-day trip. The president reiterated the US's commitment to Israel as an ally, but he suggested that Israel had hard choices to make which his administration would further encourage. He also stressed his willingness to "talk to Iran" and said his team would soon begin work on laying out a framework for contact between the two nations. US officials have not conducted wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iranian officials since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
ITN | January 27, 2009
