The feelings around the world were mixed. In Germany, the leading newspaper Der Spiegel reported that:
“With his address, U.S. President Barack Obama offered an olive branch to the Islamic world. Whether his speech will go down in history will be determined by the mullahs in Tehran and the hardliners in Israel.”
Danielle Pletka answers in the Washington Post that “Yesterday in Cairo, President Obama underscored his desire to ‘move forward without preconditions” and negotiate with Iran “on the basis of mutual respect.’ So far, no takers from Tehran.”
And, Al Jazeera, who transmitted the speech live, reported that “Arab intellectuals remain unsurprisingly split over the speech by Barack Obama to the Islamic world. While some consider it as bold, historic and an opening of a new chapter in U.S. relations with the Islamic world, others simply see it as evasive and lacking substance. Ahmed Yousef, senior advisor to the deposed Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, told Al Jazeera that Obama’s speech was a ‘landmark’, but had some reservations. ‘The things he said about Islam and the Palestinian suffering and their right to have a state is great. It is a landmark and a breakthrough speech,’ Yousef said.”
