President Obama has addressed the Arab world yesterday to unveil the American policy toward what is being called by " Arab spring", he talked briefly on each country including Tunisia , Egypt , Libya , Yemen , Syria & Bahrain mentioning that US will support the democratic change in north Africa and middle east politically and economically.
Understanding the development of US policy toward the region will lead us to analyze the main points of Obama speech in Cairo university -addressing Muslims around the world- and compare it with the points raised in " #MEspeech" .
In Cairo Obama raised several points for almost one hour including the vision of his presidency policy in the region, he admitted that US relation with Islamic world is passing by deep tension on both sides & his target is to set new relations based on mutual respect and mutual " interests", so speech included many verses of Quran ,religious historical events and some Arabic words.
He defended the Muslims' rights in USA and emphasized on minorities' rights in Islamic countries, women rights were on the table also establish true democracy in the region by people free will leading to progress in education and science in these countries.
The political vision was very clear , 1st US will end all combat operations in Iraq and start the withdrawal process that should ends in 2012 , this was the first point mentioned in his "#MEspeech" claiming that US fulfilled this promise and withdraw 100,000 from US troops in Iraq, however fear in the Arab side that America will keep military bases on Iraqi soil which impact the Iraqi national decision and put the country in uncertainty state also make Iraqi oil under the direct supervision of USA.
2nd Point was fighting terrorism and develop the political life in Afghanistan, Also Obama appeared as man of his words by displaying the results of war on terror and on top of it killing Bin Laden , dismantling Al -Qaeda cells in Pakistan & Afghanistan and the gradual withdraw from Afghanistan , also there are fears that NATO will keep military bases in the country and the condition for US forces to leave is not tangible which is being sure that Pakistan &Afghanistan will not be used by extremist against US interests and safety.
3rd Point is to minimize the spread of nuclear weapons and the focus here is on Iran and their nuclear project on the other side there was not any mention of Israeli nuclear arsenal and the issue was kept vague.
4th Point is Palestinian - Israeli conflict , Obama as every resident of the white house hope to end this conflict that drain world resources over sixty years and the image of the peacemaker and the Nobel prize winner for peace always in every US president mind, in 2009 Obama supported the solution of two states while in 2011 he made a challenging move toward the bonds with the Israeli ally when he adopt the1967 lines for the Palestinian state with "agreed mutual swaps" also he declared that Palestinians are under humiliation of occupation, this is considered huge shift in US policy and big challenge for his administration to convince Israeli PM with it, on the other side of the conflict US will push on Hamas and PLO unity government to recognize the Jewish country of Israel and leave any armed resistance against it.
Obama added two new points to the policy in the region , 1st acting as safe guard of the region which is considered to be message of reassure gulf countries that US will stand for them against Iranian threats also to protect commerce flow in the world.
2nd Help the new revolutions in Arab countries to pass the economical side effects of this turmoil and started with Egypt & Tunisia by encouraging all countries to invest there, declare that OPEC will make big investments in the oil field in the region , create foundations to make big American investments in both countries and he removed 1 billion US$ from Egypt debt that should be paid to USA.
These were the main frame of the Obama policy in middle east and it;s progress in two years but it is very important to mention that he promised to close Guantanamo bay prison and stop torture however he could not pass this decision through congress and he acquiesced to the opposition to this move also news about prisoner committing suicide in camp delta preceded 2011 #MEspeech and this promise in 2009 was not fulfilled.
During the speech the tone of attack on dictators in middle east was varying from severe attack on colonel Gaddafi to strong message to Saleh of Yemen and weak actions against Bashar El-Assad in Syria and total hypocrisy when dealing with Bahrain issue.
Religious rights was important concern in both speeches while in 2011 he declared the shite rights of worship in Bahrain.
2011 Speech was another verison of 2009 public relation speech as changes in middle east is moving very fast US had to "protect" it's "interest in the region" that's why US administration will draw new lines for it's policy that keep pace with Revolutionary tide in Arab countries and somehow aligned with the old policy with small changes away from the main lines and on top of these lines is security of Israel
