U.S. President Barack Obama's keynote speech to Muslim world in Cairo on June 4 heralded a new chapter in the relations between the United States and the Muslim world. However, his promises have not yet been fulfilled 100 days after his speech, said analysts.
All observers and experts considered Obama's speech in Cairo a leap in relations between the United States and the Muslim world, Syed Amin Shalaby, head of Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs and Egypt's former ambassador to Washington told Xinhua.
"Obama's speech presented concepts, principles and ideas regarding relations with Muslim World, saying that these relations should be in the frame of common respect and common interest; however, these ideas should not stay theoretical for so long time," said Shalaby.
He added that these ideas, although they gave positive impressions, need to turn into policies on the ground while there are a lot of conflicts disturbing the relations between Washington and the Arab and Muslim world as in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Mahmoud Maged, a Cairo-based political analyst, ruled out that Obama's promises can be achieved or even bear its fruits 100 days after his speech.
There are many unsettled issues in the Middle East for years and Obama can not overcome these issues overnight or even after 100 days, Maged told Xinhua.
The situation in Afghanistan is getting worse and it is one of the main challenges to the Obama administration, he said.
Obama announced a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan in March, which combines military, civil and diplomatic approaches, in a bid to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida and other terrorist militants.
Analysts agreed that the main issue on Obama's agenda to bridge the gap with the Middle East is the thorny issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On June 4, Obama delivered his long-awaited speech from Cairo University in Egypt, where he vowed to find a fair solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The administration of Obama had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the two-state solution and freeze the construction of settlements in the West Bank.
It is crucial to start negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis as soon as possible because it is the first step on the path of peace, but the Israeli settlement hinders all efforts aimed at reviving talks, said Maged.
The U.S. position regarding Israeli settlement is undetermined and although the Americans called on Israel to stop settlements, there is still not enough pressure on the issue.
Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks after a long break of more than six years at an international conference in Annapolis of the United States in November 2007, but the talks made little progress before being completely suspended during the Gaza war in December 2008.
The suspension of Israel-Palestinian talks was attributed partly to Netanyahu's refusal to heed Washington's repeated demands that Israel halt all settlement activities on occupied Palestinian territories.
Last week, President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas slammed Israel's remarks about accelerating building settlements, saying they are "unacceptable" and "useless". Abbas called for a full freeze of these settlements as a condition for his meeting with Netanyahu.
"The United State does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stops. We are working to create a climate in which negotiations can take place, and such actions make it harder to create such a climate," the White House said in a statement on Thursday.
However, Maged hoped the United States could exert increasing pressure on Israel to stop settlement expansion so as to help relaunch talks in the near future.
On the other hand, some analysts think that Obama administration is just beautifying its ugly image in the Muslim world in the eight-year period of his predecessor George W. Bush.
"The optimism prevailed in the Arab and Muslim circles began to recede," said professor Said al-Lawindy, head of international relations unit of the AL-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
"Those who clapped their hands to Obama at Cairo University when he talked about tolerance of Islam and its role in the human civilization feel sorry and convinced that what he said was just lip service that has nothing to do with policies on the ground," al-Lawindy told Xinhua.
(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2009)
