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WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama embarked on his first regional Middle East mission Tuesday, seeking Arab backing for his bid to revive peace moves while a US confrontation steadily builds with Israel.
On a trip highlighted by his long-awaited address to the Muslim world in Cairo on Thursday, Obama will also attempt to prod moribund regional peace diplomacy back to life.
He left the White House Tuesday evening and was to fly first to Saudi Arabia for talks with King Abdullah, who has been trying to relaunch a 2002 Arab-backed initiative.
Obama then heads Thursday to Egypt where he will meet with President Hosni Mubarak, who cancelled a recent visit to Washington because of the death of his grandson.
The trip will reflect Egypt's place alongside Saudi Arabia as a prime Arab player in regional diplomacy, analysts said.
Obama has said he will touch on the Middle East peace process in his Cairo University speech - a more general attempt to build bridges between Washington and Islam - but will not unveil a detailed plan.
The White House vowed to unleash all its technological and communications clout to ensure that as many people as possible see and hear the historic address.
"There will be a great effort on our part to distribute this through different means, (such as) social networking sites, in order to get this in front of as many eyes throughout the world as we can," spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Obama meanwhile has said he is confident of reviving meaningful Israeli-Palestinian talks, but the White House has been coy on his strategy, following a flurry of meetings with regional leaders in recent weeks.
The president has repeatedly backed a two-state solution to the conflict, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reluctance to embrace such a position.
Obama, who last week met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, is expected to lobby Saudi Arabia and Egypt for gestures which would widen Netanyahu's room for political manoeuvre.
"I think the administration is interested in the April 2002 Saudi plan," said Steven Cook, of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The initiative calls for full normalisation of relations between Arab states and Israel, a full withdrawal by Israel from Arab land, the creation of a Palestinian state and an "equitable" solution for Palestinian refugees.
The Hamas Islamist group, which rules the Gaza Strip, has been told by the Middle East Quartet - the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States - that it must recognise Israel, renounce violence, and abide by prior agreements made by the Palestinians, in return for a place at the table.
Some analysts see the 2002 Saudi-inspired plan as a way to broaden Middle East diplomacy and bypass stalemated Israeli-Palestinian talks.
King Abdullah II of Jordan has been pushing a "57-state" solution, which would grant Israel sweeping diplomatic recognition in return for making peace with the Palestinians.
So far though, it seems unlikely Arab states will grant early concessions to Israel without some moderation of Netanyahu's position on settlements.
"Being able to match the minimum that the Arabs would accept with the maximum that Netanyahu would actually be prepared to give is really a fool's errand," said Flynt Leverett, a US official who left the Bush administration over differences on Middle East policy.
Obama will face questioning from Saudi King Abdullah on his plans to engage arch US-foe Iran, which some Saudis fear could result in a grand bargain which harms the kingdom's interests.
Some observers see an opportunity to exploit Arab disquiet about Iran's nuclear programme to forge an Arab-Israeli compact, although such hopes have proven fruitless in the past.
"This is something that the Bush administration tried and failed. This is something that even the Clinton administration (tried) in its way," said Leverett, now director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative at the New America Foundation.
Following on Obama's heels, US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell will travel to the region next week, the State Department said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri lashed out at Obama's trip, which he said was at the invitation of the "torturers of Egypt" and the "slaves of America," and urged Egyptians to shun him.
"His bloody messages were received and are still being received by Muslims, and they will not be concealed by public relations campaigns or by farcical visits or elegant words," Zawahiri said in an Internet audio, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
- AFP/yb
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