Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent | March 09
BARACK Obama has embarked on a radical reversal of Washington's approach to the Middle East in a series of developments over the weekend that add to the ambitious reach of policy changes for the US President.
Following Washington's new stance in Iraq and the decision to withdraw forces from the country by the end of August next year, Mr Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in the space of 48 hours a series of diplomatic shifts to unwind years of the Bush administration's policies towards the region:
*The US military said last night that 12,000 American troops would leave Iraq by September, marking an acceleration of the timetable for US withdrawal.
* Mr Obama flagged negotiations with some of the Taliban tribes in Afghanistan;
* Ms Clinton invited Iran to participate in a regional conference as part of a strategic review of the situation in Afghanistan;
* The White House dispatched two envoys to hold talks with Syria yesterday;
* Ms Clinton opened a broad diplomatic engagement with Russia at a meeting with her counterpart in Geneva as part of Washington's push to try to end Moscow's support for Iran.
The regional diplomatic effort, which will involve Mr Obama travelling to Turkey early next month -- Ankara has offered some qualified support for Iran's nuclear program -- makes good on his campaign promises.
But it worries Arab and Israeli leaders, who already question whether Mr Obama is making too many concessions to Iran, while eastern Europeans feel the same about the dramatic reversal in tone of the relations between Washington and Moscow.
"We are being extremely vigorous in our outreach because we are testing the waters, we are determining what is possible, we're turning new pages and resetting buttons, and we are doing all kinds of efforts to try to create more partners and fewer adversaries," Ms Clinton said of her talks and travels through the region last week.
Mr Obama told The New York Times yesterday he was open to a reconciliation process in which the US military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban, in a similar way to the engagement of US forces with the Sunni militias in Iraq.
Declaring that the US was not winning in Afghanistan, and noting Washington's successful strategy in Iraq to win the support of insurgents there, Mr Obama said: "There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and in the Pakistani region."
He acknowledged the approach might not yield the same success. "The situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex," he said. "You have a less-governed region, a history of fierce independence among tribes. Those tribes are multiple and sometimes operate at cross-purposes, and so figuring all that out is going to be much more of a challenge."
Iran yesterday responded positively to Ms Clinton's plans to invite Tehran to a likely March 31 meeting on Afghanistan -- the first overture of this kind to Iran from the US in years.
"The US and global powers have realised that the issues in Afghanistan cannot be solved without the presence of the Islamic republic," said Gholam Hossein Elham, a spokesman for the Iranian Government.
Ms Clinton made much at the weekend of hitting the "reset" button with Moscow during meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The two discussed a new arms treaty and how to deal with Iran's nuclear program. While Tehran says this is for civilian purposes, Washington and its allies believe the program is a front for nuclear weapons technology. It remains a foreign policy problem for the Obama administration, as it was for George W.Bush.
Signs of renewed diplomacy were also seen in Damascus yesterday at the first high-level talks between US and Syrian officials in more than four years.
Senior State Department official Jeffrey Feltman and White House national security official Dan Shapiro met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.
Mr Feltman said the US wanted to see "forward momentum" on peace talks between Syria and Israel, and said Syria could help Middle East stability.
"We found a lot of common ground," Mr Feltman said.
BARACK Obama has embarked on a radical reversal of Washington's approach to the Middle East in a series of developments over the weekend that add to the ambitious reach of policy changes for the US President.
Following Washington's new stance in Iraq and the decision to withdraw forces from the country by the end of August next year, Mr Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in the space of 48 hours a series of diplomatic shifts to unwind years of the Bush administration's policies towards the region:
*The US military said last night that 12,000 American troops would leave Iraq by September, marking an acceleration of the timetable for US withdrawal.
* Mr Obama flagged negotiations with some of the Taliban tribes in Afghanistan;
* Ms Clinton invited Iran to participate in a regional conference as part of a strategic review of the situation in Afghanistan;
* The White House dispatched two envoys to hold talks with Syria yesterday;
* Ms Clinton opened a broad diplomatic engagement with Russia at a meeting with her counterpart in Geneva as part of Washington's push to try to end Moscow's support for Iran.
The regional diplomatic effort, which will involve Mr Obama travelling to Turkey early next month -- Ankara has offered some qualified support for Iran's nuclear program -- makes good on his campaign promises.
But it worries Arab and Israeli leaders, who already question whether Mr Obama is making too many concessions to Iran, while eastern Europeans feel the same about the dramatic reversal in tone of the relations between Washington and Moscow.
"We are being extremely vigorous in our outreach because we are testing the waters, we are determining what is possible, we're turning new pages and resetting buttons, and we are doing all kinds of efforts to try to create more partners and fewer adversaries," Ms Clinton said of her talks and travels through the region last week.
Mr Obama told The New York Times yesterday he was open to a reconciliation process in which the US military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban, in a similar way to the engagement of US forces with the Sunni militias in Iraq.
Declaring that the US was not winning in Afghanistan, and noting Washington's successful strategy in Iraq to win the support of insurgents there, Mr Obama said: "There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and in the Pakistani region."
He acknowledged the approach might not yield the same success. "The situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex," he said. "You have a less-governed region, a history of fierce independence among tribes. Those tribes are multiple and sometimes operate at cross-purposes, and so figuring all that out is going to be much more of a challenge."
Iran yesterday responded positively to Ms Clinton's plans to invite Tehran to a likely March 31 meeting on Afghanistan -- the first overture of this kind to Iran from the US in years.
"The US and global powers have realised that the issues in Afghanistan cannot be solved without the presence of the Islamic republic," said Gholam Hossein Elham, a spokesman for the Iranian Government.
Ms Clinton made much at the weekend of hitting the "reset" button with Moscow during meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The two discussed a new arms treaty and how to deal with Iran's nuclear program. While Tehran says this is for civilian purposes, Washington and its allies believe the program is a front for nuclear weapons technology. It remains a foreign policy problem for the Obama administration, as it was for George W.Bush.
Signs of renewed diplomacy were also seen in Damascus yesterday at the first high-level talks between US and Syrian officials in more than four years.
Senior State Department official Jeffrey Feltman and White House national security official Dan Shapiro met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.
Mr Feltman said the US wanted to see "forward momentum" on peace talks between Syria and Israel, and said Syria could help Middle East stability.
"We found a lot of common ground," Mr Feltman said.
Source: The Australian
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