This iis an interview with an Arab businesswoman and minister about the state of women in the Arab workplace.

IRAN: To coincide with the Nowruz festival, celebrating spring, Obama released a new video appeal to Iran. In the video, Obama praises Iran, and again stressed his wish for a mutual understanding between the two countries.

Watch the video: New Year, New Beginning

Reacting positively, the Iranian press advisor embraced the video, but said he wants concrete action more than words. He told the AFP:

We welcome the wish of the president of the United States to put away past differences.

But the way to do that is not by Iran forgetting the previous hostile and aggressive attitude of the United States.

The American administration has to recognise its past mistakes and repair them as a way to put away the differences.

A nice unyielding response. What I found interesting was reading all the comments from readers on the news articles about the video. Basically everyone said “This seems good, but what next?” I hope the Obama administration has a plan, because I’d hate to think of this as a pleasant Friday stunt to distract everyone from economic news over the weekend.

Al Jazeera English article: Obama offers Iran ‘new beginning’

Cartoon from Outlook Afghanistan

Outlook Afghanistan’s Cartoon Page

Photo of Hillary Clinton’s inner monologue by cobblucas

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL: Hillary Clinton made her first visit to Israel in her new role as Secretary of State. The trip lasted 36 hours, during which she met with President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We spoke about the Iranian issue and the Palestinian issue and we promised to meet again after the establishment of a government [in Israel]. We will work together closely in order to bring peace and prosperity to the region,” Netanyahu said after the meeting.

Netanyahu has been working to form a new coalition government, and is expected to be sworn in as PM within weeks. His original dream team coalition included Livni, Netanyahu’s centerist rival, but Livni refused to agree with Netanyahu’s hard-line stance against a Palestinian state. Haaretz described the situation this way:

At present, it appears his most likely government is a narrow alliance of hard-line and Orthodox parties opposed to significant concessions for peace.

The odds don’t looks so good for a meaningful Israeli-Palestinian accord any time soon, but the Israeli people voted for Netanyahu knowing full well what he stood for. I am curious what “common ground” Netanyahu and Clinton found that was more than, “Hey, let’s not fight about stuff.”

Haaretz article: Netanyahu: Clinton and I found common ground

IRAN: Obama’s Iraq policy speech at Camp LeJeune was closely watched by the Middle East media. Press TV (Iran) saw it as a step in the right direction, although the author pointed out that August 31, 2010 is a later withdrawal date than Obama promised during his campaign.

Press TV also took the opportunity to do a little Bush bashing. They cited a poll with 60% of Americans saying that the Iraq War was “not worth it”.

Press TV article: Obama sets Iraq withdrawal date

Photo bu Army.mil

WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES: Obama signed off on a Pentagon order to increase troops in Afghanistan by 17,000 in total. But while all the US media was running stories about the troop increase, Outlook Afghanistan ran an update titled “Troops Alone Cannot Win in Afghanistan: Obama” a reference to one of Obama’s talking points.

It’s easy to see the difference in focus here. This is the first sentence of Outlook’s article:

Diplomacy will play a bigger role in U.S. efforts in Afghanistan in future even as the Pentagon announced a significant troop increase, President Barack Obama said Tuesday in an interview on Canadian television.

This was the first line of an article from CNN:

“This is not a temporary force uplift,” McKiernan said. “It will need to be sustained for some period of time, for the next three to four to five years.”

I wish I could say that Outlook Afghanistan was being positive, but it’s more likely they are trying to be comforting. Civilian deaths in Afghanistan due to US raids were up 40% in 2008; and with no end to US occupation in sight, the people of Afghanistan need to hear that diplomacy will be somewhere in the mix. The Outlook article also focused on the Canadian troop withdrawl.

Obama only announced the troop increase on Canadian TV, a far cry from Bush’s primetime press conference for the Iraq surge. It’s an ominous sign for our involvement in Afghanistan, which could last another five years or more.

Outlook Afghanistan Updates Page