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 reports.
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.
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15 Responses
Fits that Hussein would grant his first tv interview with Arabiya. A barometer of what is yet to come…
You took the words out of my mouth, Joseph.
Is President Hussein still fluent in Arabic?
What % of Jews voted for this guy?
So his first official call is to Abbas and his first official interview is with Al-Arabiya. I have a bad feeling that the next four to eight years are beginning to take shape…
i heard 85 percent (of frum jews, i heard ten percent)
“President Barack Obama said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television news that the U.S. isn’t an enemy of the Muslim world. Obama told the Dubai-based network that he had Muslim relatives and that he lived in the Muslim-majority nation of Indonesia for several years. “My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy,” he said. “If you look at the track record … America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that”
From Marketwatch.com
“respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago”
Wasn’t that just about the time that US airplanes were hijacked by muslims, and the Iranian hostage affair (ok Iran isn’t muslim) – the pre-Reagan era, when the US feared the muslims??????
BS”D
Iran IS Muslim; it is just not Arab (same as Indonesia or Malaysia or Turkey for instance).
Yes, here comes change. Carter redux.
#8 Iran isn’t Muslim??? Where are you living under a rock? Iran is most definitly very Muslim to the extreme!! Maybe you meant to say they are not Arab which is true.
Lev melachim v’sarim beyad Elokim. But I did hear a hopeful soundbite from the President this morning: Mitchell is going to the Middle East to listen. (Emphasis on listening.) For too long America has dictated policy, not listened.
Does this mean that he’s giving Israel the latitude to do what’s needed?
no surprise, here
FlatBUSHer, the fact that he even acknowledged al-Qaeda er Al-Arabiya TV speaks volumes about hope and change
1st phonecall – to Abu Mazen
1st interview – to al-aribaya
1st visit to …..(maybe Iran??)
#16, etc –
Obama is not the first president to interview with Al-Arabiya. That honor goes to George W. Bush. I put up a link before to the 2004 transcript but the comment was not posted – try Google.