Obama offers Iran olive branch during his first foreign TV interview as president... on an Arab station

President Obama has offered an olive branch to Iran as long as it is ready to 'unclench its fist'.



Breaking yet again with the policies of the Bush administration, Mr Obama said he was prepared to open peace talks with Tehran.



The potential nuclear threat from Iran is likely to pose one of the biggest tests for the new president and he underlined his determination to confront problems in the Middle East head-on by granting his first foreign TV interview since taking office to an Arab station.



See the full interview below



Plea: U.S. President Barack Obama assured the Muslim world that America is 'not their enemy' in a TV interview with the al-Arabiya channel

And he made clear there would be a radical change in policy in dealing with Muslim countries, saying his envoys had been instructed to 'start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating'.

His broadcast came just before he headed to Capitol Hill yesterday to seek Republican support for his £515 billion plan to revive America’s crippled economy.

Mr Obama took heavy flak during his election campaign over his pledge to open dialogue with Iran and other countries scorned by George Bush as sworn enemies of the US.

One of his most outspoken critics was former presidential rival Hillary Clinton, who will now be spearheading the new administration’s more benign foreign policy as Secretary of State.

Speaking to the Dubai-based Al Arabiya network, Mr Obama insisted: ‘It is important for us to be willing to talk to Iran, to express very clearly where our differences are, but also where there are potential avenues for progress.

‘If countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us,’ he added, echoing a line from his Inauguration Day address.

Mr Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Middle East Envoy George Mitchell in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington yesterday

Britain, the US and other western powers have accused the Iranians of secretly building the capacity to make nuclear weapons.

But Tehran adamantly refuses to freeze a programme it says is limited to the peaceful production of electricity.

Mr Obama reached out to the Muslim world, saying: ‘Americans are not your enemy.



'We sometimes make mistakes. We are not perfect.



'But America was not born a colonial power and the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that.'

The president noted that he had Muslim relatives and lived in Indonesia, the world’s most Islamic nation, as a child.

He spent much of his campaign trying to combat attempts to paint him as a Muslim because of his middle name of Hussein, even though he is a church-going Christian.

He urged Muslims to judge him by his actions, pointing to the decision to close Guantanamo Bay prison camp. He said he also would begin to implement his pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq.



Spoof: The new issue of Mad magazine pokes fun at the daunting task Mr Obama, who is still trying to quit smoking, faces as president

With his new Middle East envoy, former Northern Ireland peacemaker George Mitchell, already in Egypt on a fact-finding trip, Mr Obama reiterated his determination to help broker a solution to the conflict.



He said ‘the moment is ripe’ for both sides to return to the negotiating table.

But he said the world had to factor in the wider problems in the region.

‘It is impossible for us to think only in terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not think in terms of what's happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan,’ he added.

In Washington yesterday, Mr Obama promised to hear out Republicans disenchanted with his latest bail out plan to pump hundreds of billions more of taxpayer money into public spending projects.

In his first visit to Congress since taking office, he was hoping to shore up bipartisan support on the eve of tomorrow’s vote on the bill in the House of Representatives.

But analysts say he was likely to be disappointed unless he agreed to sweeten the pill with wider tax cuts to help Americans struggling to keep their homes and jobs in the deepening recession.

Mr Obama said Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are 'nervous' now they no longer have George Bush as a recruiting tool.

He confidently said bin Laden's ideas were 'bankrupt' and pointed out they failed to offer Muslims hope.



President Obama added: 'In my inauguration speech, I spoke about: "You will be judged on what you've built, not what you've destroyed".



'And what they've been doing is destroying things. And over time, I think the Muslim world has recognised that that path is leading no place, except more death and destruction.

'Now, my job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect. I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.

'What I want to communicate is the fact that in all my travels throughout the Muslim world, what I've come to understand is that regardless of your faith - and America is a country of Muslims, Jews, Christians, non-believers - regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams.



