New US Administration, Fresh Approach?

Syrian media continue to speculate on how the new administration of United States president Barack Obama might affect the regional peace process.



Obama came to the White House promising to break from the past, wrote Marwan Qablan in the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan.



Yet while the new president is likely to adopt a “soft power” approach to global affairs, there is still concern about many of his advisers, wrote Qablan, who argued that these officials held pro-Israel points of view.



Iyad al-Jafari penned an opinion article published on the pro-government website Syria News in which he praised Obama’s selection of George Mitchell as special envoy for the Middle East.



Jafari wrote that he hoped Mitchell’s heritage – his mother was Lebanese – would help him understand the Arab-Israeli conflict. He argued that having an Irish father may similarly have helped the former US envoy to Northern Ireland support the peace process there.



Meanwhile, Sayah Azam praised Obama’s inauguration speech for setting a new tone for US relations with Arab countries. In a January 27 comment for the state-backed Al-Baath newspaper, Azam wrote that Obama’s address contained little evidence of the “arrogance” that characterised the previous administration.