Is America Changing?

The many messages which U.S. President Barack Obama has delivered from the podium of the 68th meeting of the United Nations while it was held at the U.N. headquarters in New York, from Tuesday night to last Wednesday, and their clarification of American foreign policy in the foreseeable future bore indications for more than one issue and gave specifics of American dealings with them.

The most interesting aspects of the American speech addressed the Egyptian issue. Obama said, “The United States will maintain a constructive relationship with the interim government.” Despite the reference to the cessation of selling military systems to Cairo and the invitation to “opposing the use of violence as a means of suppressing dissent,” Washington’s keenness on not compromising its relationship with Egypt came out ahead. However, what followed gave reason to believe that it will not break ties completely with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Thus, the position returned to oscillating with Obama’s statement that the isolated Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi “was democratically elected but proved unwilling or unable to govern in a way that was fully inclusive.” In this was an endorsement of some kind of the will of the Egyptian people, even if it did not reach the level of supporting and accepting this will and what it currently represents.

There is a change that can be perceived during the American speech about the developments in the situation in Egypt, although it did not reach some level that can be clearly measured. It was content with floating a position, trying to look for balance in the complete absence of balance in the past and betting on the Muslim Brotherhood and its position, which is biased against the people who peacefully brought down the ruling regime.

Obama sent signals. Maybe his administration hopes to propel the Egyptian government to latch onto those signals which do not involve clear or explicit positions, and it is an initiative to strengthen the relationships, the connections and the coordination. However, this will not pass over the Egyptian government with such simplicity. It is more likely that the current position in the relationship with Washington will persist. The fact is that nothing has really changed from its previous position.

Maybe the American administration is trying to gradually change its positions, until it does not appear as if it made a large concession. However, it will not retreat from all of its negative positions about the situation in Egypt. That is due to a variety of reasons, at the head of which are the rapid and escalating regional developments, efforts to arrive at big adjustments in the level of more than major issues. It has become certain to Washington that there is no way to neutralize Egypt from playing its role in them. These issues are political settlements in Occupied Palestine, the solution the bloody Syrian crisis and, moreover, efforts to redraw political relationships in the region through adopting a diplomatic approach to the Iranian nuclear issue.

Successive American administrations have shown us a political approach based on mixing issues and trying to hit more than one bird with one stone. It seems that this is what the Obama administration is seeking to do this time.