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’

See the French perspective on Clinton’s first meeting with Russia. The US is hoping for Russia’s help in dealing with Iran.

This video clip also covers some other stories that France 24 English is watching right now, including Michael Jackson’s return tour.

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 by jrvetson

WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES: Tonight Obama will give his first speech to Congress. I found this piece in Mail & Guardian, South Africa’s most popular paper, titled “Obama makes showpiece Congress address”. It’s their brief report on the subject, and it’s not too positive. They even present survey data about Obama’s approval rating (60% or more approve) with a negative spin. Either M&G is getting really cynical, or they’re hedging their bets. South Africa has been taking it on the chin during the recent economic turmoil, so they are well within their right to be skeptical.

Mail and Guardian aticle: Obama makes showpiece Congress address

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