President Barack Obama chose an Arabic satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, delivering a message on Tuesday to the Muslim world that “Americans are not your enemy.” The interview underscored Obama's commitment to repair relations with the Muslim world that have suffered under the Bush administration. The president expressed an intention to engage the Middle East immediately, and his new envoy to the region, former Sen. George J. Mitchell, arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. “My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy,” Obama told the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel. He praised King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, for putting forward an Arab plan for peace in the Middle East. Obama noted that the US had made mistakes in the past, but “that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that.” Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world “based on mutual respect and mutual interest.” He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives. The new president said he felt it was important to “get engaged right away” in the Middle East and had directed Mitchell to talk to “all the major parties involved.” His administration would craft an approach after that, he said in the interview. “What I told him is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating,” Obama told the interviewer. The president reiterated the US.commitment to Israel as an ally, and to its right to defend itself. But he suggested that both Israel and the Palestinians have hard choices to make. “I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people,” he said, calling for a Palestinian state that is contiguous with internal freedom of movement and can trade with neighboring countries. __
