Syrian Journalists Praise Obama Win

The Syrian media gave wide coverage to the United State presidential election, clearly favouring Barack Obama ahead of the November 4 polls and expressing some optimism that US policies would change for the better under the new president.



The government did not give an official response to Obama’s win, but the media declared him the winner even before the polls closed.



The November 5 newspapers came out before the final results of the elections had been declared.



"We could be wrong and McCain could win, but we want to declare our support for the millions of Americans and Arabs who want a change in American policy," said the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan.



Isam Dari, editor-in-chief of the official newspaper Tishreen, produced a November 5op-ed asserting that Arabs preferred Obama over McCain because he had promised to withdraw from Iraq.



Dari said the world wanted the new administration to work for peace by "acting as firemen instead of setting fires".



The pro-government website Syria News reported on November 5 that Damascus wanted to see Obama play a role in the Syrian-Israeli peace process and improve his own country’s relations with Syria.



Writing for the website, Imad Fawzi al-Suaibi, an analyst close to government, warned Syrians not to bee too optimistic or pessimistic about the prospects under an Obama administration, but said the change in leadership would mean “an end to the era of conservativism and adventures”.