Ayoon Wa Azan (Obama was unfair to Egypt and Bahrain)

Have readers heard of Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Ricardo Martinelli, Allassane Ouattara, Ollanta Humala, Taur Matan Ruak, Joseph Kabila, Macky Sall, Andry Rajoelina, Paul Kagami, and Blaise Compaore? If you have not heard of them, you fail a political science test. All of them are high-ranking officials, if not heads of state. They are the presidents of Estonia, Panama, Ivory Coast, Peru, East Timor, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Madagascar, Rwanda, and Burkina Faso. On the first day of the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations on Tuesday, I heard the speeches by Barack Obama, Abdullah Gul, Francois Hollande, King Abdullah II, and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad in the morning and those of Hasan Rohani and Michel Suleiman in the afternoon. On Wednesday morning, I heard speeches by ten heads of state, namely the ones I mentioned above, and three prime ministers, before I heard the Kuwaiti prime minister, Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Hamad Al-Sabah. I hope that the people of Kuwait appreciate my patriotism and patience, which won out over hunger. In the afternoon, I heard the addresses of 12 other leaders before I heard the prime minister of Libya, Ali Zeidan. I waited patiently and on Thursday morning, I heard, among 15 leaders whom I do not know, the president of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. The name of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was on the list for the afternoon, but I knew that he would not come, because he is wanted for war crimes. Meanwhile, the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is not wanted; he came and was the guest of President Obama, as if he was human, and sane. There are many positives in the annual General Assembly meeting, and perhaps I will return to them in the coming days. But today, I would like to record two personal objections to the speech by Obama, which was published in full detail in Al-Hayat. The first is that Obama said Mohamed Morsi was elected democratically, but failed in office and millions of Egyptians rose up against him, and that the transitional authority came in response to the wishes of these millions. This is true, but the president continued by saying that the transitional government has in turn taken undemocratic decisions, by declaring a state of emergency and restrictions on the press, civil society, and the opposition. Obama did not mention that the state of emergency is 50 years old or more, and that Hosni Mubarak inherited it from Anwar Sadat. More importantly, he did not say that the transitional government's decisions are the result of terror being carried out by the Brotherhood and its supporters in Cairo, Alexandria, the Upper Said, and Sinai, to block work to establish a functioning, effective democracy. The second objection is that Obama said his country's influence in the region might be limited at times, but he promised to work for democracy and solve sectarian tension in areas such as Iraq, Bahrain, and Syria. I would like to tell the American president that I always register his good intentions, even if he is unable to carry them out. However, his comments above are shameful. He put Bahrain in the same class as Iraq and Syria, and in fact between them. This is an aggression against the truth. Bahrain is not at all like the other two countries, in which every day dozens of people, and sometimes hundreds, are killed. If Obama wanted to improve his relationship with Iran then we support this, provided that it is not at the expense of Bahrain. No Arab will accept this at all. I followed the actions of the foreign ministers of Egypt and Bahrain, Nabil Fahmy and Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa. They were busy with meeting after meeting to correct the error by the president against their two countries. Who wrote the two paragraphs on Egypt and Bahrain for President Obama? George W. Bush? What Obama said would have been appropriate for his predecessor, and I am one of those who still hopes that Obama will do what he promised. The mistakes are clear and flagrant, and unjustified, and they are ruining the good intentions and blocking a solution. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arab Today.