Commentator Questions Obama's Sincerity on Middle East
Syria Media Report, 23-Mar-09
Commentator Questions Obama's Sincerity on Middle East
Syria Media Report, 23-Mar-09
US president Barack Obama may not be as sincere about taking a new approach to Middle East diplomacy as he appears, said Syrian political analyst Marwan Qablan in the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan.
In a March 16 article, the analyst said Obama had failed to face down what he said were pro-Israeli forces that prompted former ambassador Charles Freeman not to take up a post as head of the National Intelligence Council earlier this month.
[Freeman, formerly a US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, was reportedly forced to withdraw following a campaign by pro-Israeli activists in Washington who opposed his nomination.]
Freeman, who has been a vocal critic of the Israeli government’s actions in the past, released a statement [published in the Wall Street Journal on March 10] accusing the pro-Israeli lobby of “character assassination”.
Obama has not commented on Freeman’s decision to withdraw from the appointment.
In the article, Qablan also criticised the White House for refusing to back a British decision to establish contact with the Lebanese group Hezbollah. He contrasted this stance with US moves to engage with moderate members of the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Qablan said decisions like these send out a confusing signal to those in the Middle East who were hoping for a change in US policy.
