Azerbaijan, Baku, June 6 / Trend , U. Sadigova/ Barack Obama's statements about beginning of a new epoch in relations between the United States and Muslims can be effective only after U.S. ends war in Iraq and Afghanistan and also after Israeli lobbyists in Washington are evicted, international law professor Francis A. Boyle said.
"The 59 Muslim states and the 1.5 billion Muslims of the world must judge President Obama by his actions, not this speech," Boyle wrote Trend in an email.
On June 4, during a speech at Cairo University, Obama pointed to the need for a "new beginning" in relations between the U.S. and the Muslims and admitted that both sides need to make "efforts ... for mutual respect and seeking common ground." Obama repeatedly quoted the Qur'an and called on representatives of all religions to live in peace with one another.
Obama said extremists are using the tensions that have historically existed between the United States and the Muslim world.
Arab countries hope that the Obama's speech will mark beginning of a new U.S. policy in the Middle East, which could advance the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and end violence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Observers believe that Obama wants to correct the mistakes of the previous administration of George Bush in the Middle East, saying that "Muslims must break the stereotype that the U.S. is an empire."
However, Boyle said the primary source of problems between the United States and the Muslim world goes beyond the Obama administration and his speech. Boyle said Washington uses war against terror to control oil in Muslim countries.
"United States is trying to dominate and control all of the oil and gas that lies underneath Muslim States," Boyle said.
Bogus "war against terrorism" and claims of "Islamic extremism" are pretexts to mobilize domestic and international support for this criminal policy and deploying a nuclear-armed Israel as its mercenary state, he said.
He said despite his promises during the Presidential election campaign, Obama will not be able to address problems in the region given ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"President Obama has continued war against Iraq and has intensified the illegal war against Afghanistan creating a humanitarian catastrophe for the Muslim people," Boyle said.
Regarding Obama's support to establishment of Palestinian state and demands to stop construction of Jewish settlements, Boyle doubts that U.S. president is serious.
If Obama were serious about a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, all he has to do is to remove the long-standing U.S. threat of a veto against Palestine's admission to the United Nations Organization, where Palestine currently has Observer State Status since 1974, Boyle, former law adviser of Palestinian delegation to Middle East peace talks (1991-93), said.
As a permanent member of UN Security Council United States has repeatedly used the veto against resolutions condemning Israeli military action in Gaza and the West Bank. During the latest Israeli military operations in Gaza in last December, the U.S. again vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the enclave.
"Given the almost uniformly pro-Israel advisers and founders that Obama has surrounded himself with, I doubt very seriously any of this is going to happen," Boyle said.
E. Tariverdiyeva (Baku) contributed to the article.
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