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’

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