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Politics : Obama Watch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LTK007 who wrote (101)	1/21/2009 10:16:00 AM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 290

Gravel: Obama will not go the distance Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:21:42 GMT Former US Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel says Barack Obama will not assert the leadership needed to stabilize the Mideast. "The American presidency to the White House and the Congress are not prepared to step up to the table and assert its leadership role in the Middle East," the influential former senator from Alaska said in an exclusive interview with Press TV. Gravel said "a proper and fair resolve to the Palestinian-Israeli problem" is not going to happen during the four-year Obama term in office. "They are just not going to do it. They are not going to do it during Obama's reign," he said. Gravel blamed special interest groups supporting Israel for getting in the way of peace, suggesting that the Israeli lobby in America to be an obstacle in the way of Obama. The 78 year-old, who ran for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign, said one of the ways to resolve Middle East crises would be to develop close relations with Iran. "One of the keys to solving that problem is, of course, bringing Iran into the picture and recognizing that if we developed an understanding -- a proper relationship with Iran -- they would be the key to helping with Hamas and Hezbollah on the Palestinian side," Gravel added. The new president of the United States has promised to do his best in attempting to tackle foreign policy issues from his first full day in office on Wednesday. Other than naming former senator George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) as his Middle East envoy, Obama plans to convene the National Security Council to launch a reassessment of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. Before his inauguration, Obama caused global disappointment by refraining from commenting on the Israeli military operations against the populated Gaza Strip. Protesters gathered at Obama's transition office in Washington DC early in January to demand him to do more. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has also commented on the issue of Barack Obama entering office. "We believe Obama should take the first honest step to defy the past eight years of US polices and rectify these policies," the Iranian diplomat said Monday. "He should recognize the new Middle East," he said. The United States has been subject to severe criticism in the Middle East for the support it lends to Israel, for its war on terror and for its pursuit of pressure policies.