Some global adversaries ready to give Obama chance

Written by Janet

Since Obama has taken office, and he has offered the hand of friendship, many of the US foes are listening, sensing an opening for improved relations after eight combative years under President George W. Bush. Fidel Castro is said to like the new American leader, and North Korea and Iran both sounded open to new ideas to defuse nuclear-tinged tensions.

Although it is unclear what they will demand in return from the untested American statesman, and whether they will agree to the compromises the U.S. is likely to insist on in exchange for warmer relations.

Iran still considers the U.S. the “Great Satan,” but a day after Obama was sworn in, it said it was “ready for new approaches by the United States.” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said his country would study the idea of allowing the U.S. to open a diplomatic office in Tehran, the first since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But the differences between the two nations are deep – U.S. suspicions about Iran’s nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threats to annihilate Israel, and Tehran’s support for militants in Iraq – and analysts say that baby steps are all that can be hoped for, at least in the short term.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, said the country had doubts that Obama’s Mideast policy will be different from the Bush administration, state television reported Sunday.

Obama may think “he can convince Iran to give up its nuclear program, but this is a red line for Iran,” said Saudi political analyst Khaled al-Dakhil.

Israel and the Palestinians present the new president with one of his greatest challenges, and he has been quick to demonstrate his interest. 

With the latest Gaza fighting still reverberating around the world, Obama appointed George Mitchell, mediator of peace in Northern Ireland, as special envoy to the Middle East.

Elsewhere, some see hope for progress in the frustrating on-again-off-again talks with North Korea.  Before Obama’s inauguration, a newspaper considered a mouthpiece for the isolated, nuclear-armed regime said the country would be willing to give up its nuclear arsenal if the U.S. accepts its conditions, which include establishing diplomatic relations. 

Another crucial area is to repair the relationship with Moscow.  Sergei Karaganov, the chairman of the presidium of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, saw no room for Moscow to compromise because it feels it has already given away too much with nothing to show for it.

In America’s own hemisphere, the greatest hope for diplomatic progress lies with Cuba, where Fidel Castro and his brother-successor, Raul Castro, have both spoken positively about Obama.

On Wednesday, Argentina’s president came out of a meeting with Fidel Castro quoting him as having said Obama seems “like a man who is absolutely sincere.”

That’s quite a change from Cuba’s attitude toward Bush, who was depicted on Havana billboards as a vampire.

As for Osama bin Laden, he is giving Obama no breaks. In an audiotape that surfaced after Obama’s election, bin Laden vowed to open “new fronts” against the United States, practically daring Obama to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“If he withdraws from the war, it is a military defeat. If he continues, he drowns in economic crisis,” bin Laden said. Meanwhile, he said, al-Qaida was prepared to fight “for seven more years, and seven more after that, and then seven more.”

• Posted in: World News
• Tagged: Obama, policies, world leaders