CHENNAI:
The challenge for United States President Barack Obama lies in backing his appealing rhetoric with concrete actions in his efforts to make a breakthrough in U.S. foreign policy engagement in West Asia, N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, said on Wednesday.
Launching the silver jubilee talk series hosted by the Rotary Club of Madras East, Mr. Ram said the U.S. President’s immediate challenges included dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict and preventing Afghanistan from falling to the Taliban.
Mr. Ram pointed out that Mr. Obama used compelling rhetoric, whether it was the taboo-breaking Cairo address to reach out to the Muslim community or his strong-throated support to a two-State solution for the Israel-Palestine issue.
Moral support
At the same time, the U.S. President has also been criticised for not venturing far enough in laying out a roadmap on some key areas of the U.S. foreign policy for West Asia.
However, the U.S. President needs to be given a chance in these early days of his administration, as some of the challenges that he seeks to address are quite big tasks and deserve moral support, he said.
One of the biggest challenges for Mr. Obama lay in checking powerful pro-Israel lobbies within the U.S. from disrupting policy initiatives for peace with Palestine, he said.
Huge risk
According to Mr. Ram, the U.S. President was taking a huge risk by committing to a military offensive in Afghanistan, which was in sharp contradiction with his resolve for an early pull-out of troops from Iraq.
Mr. Ram felt that the U.S. President was on a bad wicket in Afghanistan, given the widespread anti-U.S. sentiments following the killings of civilians in the U.S.-led air strikes. Mr. Obama needs to reverse the course here in attempting a military solution.
Mr. Ram warned India against getting embroiled in others’ war.
“India has to adopt a hands-off approach in Afghanistan,” he said.
J. Balaraman, president of the Rotary Club of Madras East, and Murali Krishnan, secretary, also spoke.
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