Friends, not Foes

President Barack Obama continues to demonstrate that he is eager to live up to his promise of ushering in a brand new era and building a world that is not as hostile and as deeply divided as the present one. In an interview with the Al-Arabiya television network, he told the Muslim world that Americans were 'not your enemy'. He spoke earnestly of returning to the warmer relationship with the Muslim world that existed two or three decades ago. Mr Obama also urged Israel and Palestine to return to the negotiating table, warning that conflict would not benefit the people of either land. In a still more dramatic indication of a visible policy shift, indeed a virtual U-turn on the route followed by former President Bush, President Obama offered Iran a handshake if it 'unclenched its fist'.

The fact that Obama chose an Arab news channel to give his first interview as president is in itself significant. Clearly he sees building a warmer relationship with the Muslim world as a key priority. So far, the new US president has shown he intends to keep up the momentum he built during his election campaign. In this, he has proved inaccurate those who had predicted he would focus essentially on domestic policy during his early days in office. The Obama team seems to be aware of the importance of creating greater harmony as a means of battling terror. There are reports that the president, while waiting to move into the Oval Office, made it a point to read all kinds of books on the Middle East and the Muslim world, including those penned by writers who hold no sympathies with the US. This is an immensely positive sign. In his interview, Obama demonstrated a considerable understanding of the Muslim world and in fact made it a point to mention that he had spent time in Indonesia as a means to establish a better understanding with Muslims everywhere. His suggestion that the US work together with the Russians and the Arabs to build peace in Palestine also shows a less arrogant approach than that adopted in the past. A settlement in Palestine would of course go a very long way in settling the tensions and hatred that fuel terrorism.

Should the US president succeed in turning the vision he brings to Washington into policy measures that can help end the acrimony we see everywhere, he would have staged a true revolution. Already, there are signals, as Obama noted in his interview, that Al-Qaeda leaders are wary of Washington's new chief. Like many of us, they perhaps wonder what his plans are and where he intends to take the world. Throughout his career, the sometimes enigmatic Barrack Hussein Obama has been known as a man who keeps his cards close to his chest. But for the present, the deal he seems to be offering is one that should not be turned down. Barack Obama is quite evidently a man on a mission. He has made it a point to demonstrate that the biases and prejudices of the past have been flung out of White House windows. We must hope his offer of a closer embrace is accepted by key leaders, so that the process of bridging the dangerous gulf that divides the world can begin immediately.