Washington: President Barack Obama will
be talking about how best the US can support the positive changes, political and economic reforms in the Middle East and focus on non-violence, human rights in his much anticipated
speech, the White House said.
"The President looks forward to giving this speech as
an opportunity to step back and assess what we have all
witnessed, the historic change we have seen and to talk about
how he views it... as a moment of opportunity to explain to
the world what our values are. The values and the principles
that we bring to the region as we decide what policies this
administration and this country should pursue to support that
change, to support the democratic aspirations of the people in
the region," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.
"He will talk specifically about ways that we can best support that positive change, while focusing on our core
principles: non-violence, support for human rights, and
support for political and economic reform," Carney told
reporters.
President Obama is scheduled to deliver a major policy
speech on the Middle East and the recent change in the region
at the State Department tomorrow.
This would be his first major address to the Muslim
world after the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden early
this month.
"The President would certainly discuss the Middle East
peace process in the speech. It is an element, obviously, of
the speech as well as the discussions about what's happening
in the region," he said, adding the fact that there needs to
be progress in those peace talks is something the President
very much agrees with.
"We also think that there's a history of that, and
that what we have been seeing in many cases in these past five
months is demonstrations by people of these countries,
protests against their governments and demands for more
political participation, for greater individual freedoms,
greater economic prosperity, that is really the source of
future instability in the region," he said.
"There are many other important problems to address in
the region for the governments to answer the legitimate
grievances of the people that they represent," the spokesman
said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 10:59