Barack Obamas open-handed approach to the Middle East has won him praise from some Arab leaders viewed by previous US presidents as deadly enemies. "Obama is a flicker of hope amid the imperialist darkness," Muammar Gaddafi told a rally of his supporters last week.
The Libyan leader, once a thorn in Americas side, was dubbed a "mad dog" by former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. He has mended ties with Washington since 2003. "He (Obama) speaks logically. Arrogance no longer exists in the American approach which was previously based on dictating to the rest of the world to meet its own conditions," Gaddafi said.
Obama has also earned conditional tributes from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Palestinian Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and Lebanons Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah - all at times linked by Washington with terrorism.
Even non-Arab Irans President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has recognised that Obama might offer something new. "We speak with great respect for Obama. But we are realists. We want to see real change," he told Germanys Der Spiegel magazine. "We feel that Obama must now follow his words with actions." The readiness of Americas adversaries to acknowledge that Obama has brought a more sensitive verbal approach to the region is striking. In contrast, some traditional US allies such as Egypts President Hosni Mubarak have kept tight-lipped.
Conservative Arab leaders may have misgivings about Obamas overtures to their own regional rivals, Iran and Syria, and may fear that he will in time renew US pressure for human rights and democratic reform in their own autocratic systems. But for many in the Middle East, Obamas search for dialogue with Iran, his declaration in Turkey this month that America was not at war with Islam, his stress on a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and his plans to withdraw from Iraq constitute a reassuring change from the perceived belligerence and pro-Israeli bias of his predecessor George W. Bush.
Now Arab leaders wonder whether Obama is able or willing to change the substance, not just the tone, of US policy. If so, some at least seem eager to do business with him. "It is most natural to want a meeting with President Obama," Assad told The New Yorkers Seymour Hersh by email.
Assad, whose officials conducted Turkish-mediated peace talks with Israel last year, has long called for the United States to play a more active role in Middle East peace-making. Despite such hopes, Syria remains cautious.
"We see what Obama said as positive," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said in an interview with Lebanons As-Safir newspaper last week. "But now we need to see how the United States will deal with the extreme right-wing Israeli government" led by new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu has not endorsed a two-state solution. His foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has openly rejected it, dismissing US-backed peace talks with the Palestinians as a "dead end".
Those talks have excluded Hamas, shunned by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations for its refusal to recognise Israel or renounce violence.
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