BICOM

According to media reports, US President Barack Obama will give a major policy speech on his administration’s Middle East policy as early as next week. The speech is expected to set down new guidelines for US strategy in the region, in light of the series of uprisings against autocratic regimes in the Arab world in recent months, and the successful US assassination of al-Qaida leader Osama Bin-Laden.

US sources suggest that the administration has been considering whether or not Obama should use the speech to specify some of the terms of reference for a final status deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Britain, along with Germany and France, have been pressing the US to do so. One official quoted in Haaretz said that the speech would focus on “political change in the Middle East and North Africa.” Another suggested that the speech would seek to highlight the ‘democratic values’ that have characterised the uprisings in the region. Unlike with Obama’s address in Cairo in 2009, the speech is not expected to focus on the subject of religion. The speech is likely to come shortly before a planned speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the joint Houses of Congress on 24 May, at which Netanyahu may present his own ideas about how to move the peace process forward. Both speeches have been under consideration for some time, but both the US and Israel have been forced to re-evaluate their positions in light of the Palestinian unity deal.