Jailan Zayanf
Agence France Presse
CAIRO: Some Middle Eastern leaders expressed hope on Friday that Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize will push him to fulfill promises made to the world’s Muslims, though others criticized the award as premature.
In a landmark Cairo University speech in June, the US president promised a “new beginning” for Islam and the United States, laying out a blueprint for Middle East policy and vowing to end mistrust and forge a Palestinian state.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa said he is “very happy” Obama has won the award, which comes less than a year after he took office and with the jury hailing his “extraordinary” diplomatic efforts on the international stage.
“This is an expression that the world is convinced of what [Obama] talked about in his speeches,” Mussa told AFP.
“We hope this prize will help intensify efforts to reach peace in the Middle East and contain negative efforts opposed to peace,” he said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed a wish that “Obama will achieve his quest for peace throughout the Middle East by establishing an independent Palestinian state in the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem,” top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
However, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said the award is premature.
“Unless real and deep-rooted change is made in American policy toward recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people I would think such a prize would be useless,” said Ismail Haniyya, Hamas prime minister in the Gaza Strip.
“He did not do anything for the Palestinians except make promises,” said the Islamist group’s spokesman Samir Abu Zuhri. “At the same time, he is giving his absolute support for the [Israeli] occupation.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres were among leaders who offered their congratulations.
“This award also expresses the hope that your presidency will usher in a new era of peace and reconciliation,” said Netanyahu. “Nowhere is such a peace needed more than in the Middle East, a region that has been long marked by terror and bloodshed,” the hawkish premier added.
But Israel’s parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin called the award “a very strange decision.”
“I fear it will lead to an accord imposed on Israel, and peace concluded under coercion cannot last long,” Rivlin said.
Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, praised Obama for “his extraordinary efforts in the service of international diplomacy and of cooperation among peoples.”
Iran said the prize should prompt Obama to start working toward ending injustice in the world, an aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told AFP. “We hope that this gives him the incentive to walk in the path of bringing justice to the world order,” said Ali Akbar Javanfekr.
“We are not upset and we hope that by receiving this prize he will start taking practical steps to remove injustice in the world.”
The Nobel jury attached “special importance to Obama’s vision and work for a world without nuclear weapons” and said he had created “a new climate in international politics.
Emad Gad, a researcher at the Cairo-based Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said Obama “created a climate of calm and used a language of reconciliation.” He added the prize will be a “tough challenge” for the president.
Obama said he was “humbled” by the distinction, but criticism quickly emerged over how the award could be given so early on in his presidential career.
“It’s ridiculous. Obama is still on notice. It’s like a payoff before the delivery,” said Walid Kazziha, a professor of political science at the American University in Cairo.
“He made a very good speech [in Cairo] but we haven’t seen any concrete results,” Kazziha told AFP.
Obama’s Cairo speech, peppered with references to and quotes from the Koran, was aimed at healing a deep rift with the Islamic world.
“I have come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world,” Obama said.
“This cycle of suspicion and discord must end,” said Obama, vowing to fight “negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”
King Abdullah II of Jordan welcomed the award and noted the “positive effect” of the Cairo speech.
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