The Emir wishes Obama a happy birthday (tomorrow).
Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah told US President Barack Obama on Monday that Arab states will act on their peace initiative only once Israel "implements and fulfills its obligations." "I affirmed to President Obama that we are interested in bringing about peace in the Middle East. It is in our interest that peace be brought about," the emir said through a translator as he met with Obama at the White House. The visiting leader noted pan-Arab support for the initiative presented by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and stressed: "We will implement this peace initiative when Israel implements and fulfills its obligations." The Arab peace initiative offers Israel full normalization of ties in return for its withdrawal from occupied Arab land and the creation of a Palestinian state. AFP
The Obama administration is launching a Middle East public relations campaign to push for peace:
“One of the public misimpressions is that it’s all been about settlements,” Mr. Mitchell, the administration’s special envoy to the Middle East, said in a rare interview Friday after six months on the job. “It is completely inaccurate to portray this as, ‘We’re only asking the Israelis to do things.’ We are asking everybody to do things.”
Another misperception, he said, was that Arab countries had rebuffed Mr. Obama’s request to make moves toward a more normal relationship with Israel — a perception fueled by a Saudi official’s blunt public rejection of such incremental steps in Washington on Friday.
“We’ve gotten, over all, a very good response, a desire to act, some public statements to that effect from the crown prince of Bahrain, the president of Egypt,” said Mr. Mitchell, who returned last week from his fifth trip to the region, including stops in Israel, Egypt and Syria. Saudi Arabia’s negative public comments, other officials said, bear little relation to what it is saying in private.
In coming weeks, senior administration officials said, the White House will begin a public-relations campaign in Israel and Arab countries to better explain Mr. Obama’s plans for a comprehensive peace agreement involving Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world. Read more at the NYT
