If Obama Wins

Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, a former US presidential candidate and a current key figure in the campaign backing Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for this year’s presidential elections, was in Cairo this week in an advanced attempt to promote Obama as a US president with a will to fortify good relations with the region, including Egypt, which he described as a country with a pivotal role for the stability of the Middle East.

On Monday, Richardson met President Hosni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa for talks on the potential of improving relations between Washington and Cairo and the rest of the Arab world should Obama enter the White House this year. Officials say Richardson was not short on criticism of US foreign policy on the Middle East during the past eight years of the George Bush administration and that he appreciated Egyptian and other Arab concerns over the situation in Iraq and the fate of the Arab- Israeli struggle. They added, however, that Richardson shared no clear or concrete proposals to remedy the harm done during the Bush years. Richardson was just there to acknowledge the mistakes and to promise the determination to engage in a concerted effort to rectify the situation, particularly in relation to what he qualified as a too-little-too-late intervention by the Bush administration to settle the Palestinian-Israeli problem.

“I believe that the US should have a full-time Middle East [envoy],” Richardson stated in an address given at the invitation of the Egyptian International Economic Forum on Monday evening. According to Richardson, the function of such an envoy will be basic but crucial: secure a day in, day out intervention with the parties, especially on the Israeli-Palestinian front, to facilitate a deal. Without the US being “more aggressive in pushing the parties towards peace”, a settlement for the decades-long struggle might remain elusive.

Richardson was himself elusive when it came to questions regarding the nature of potential US intervention with Israel and the tough issues like Israeli building of illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian territories.

Speaking before American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) earlier this month, Obama had promised that the US will not pressure Israel when it comes to the settlement of the Arab-Israeli struggle and that under his leadership the US will always support Israel to keep Jerusalem as “the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided”. According to the UN and other relevant literature of the Arab-Israeli peace process, the fate of Jerusalem, the eastern part of which was occupied by military force during the 1967 war, is to be decided through negotiations.

On Sunday, Richardson was in Israel for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He signed an agreement with the Israeli government to begin a partnership that will result in more trade with New Mexico, especially in technology products.

Meanwhile, while in Cairo, Richardson argued that a Middle East peace would not just be about Israel and the Palestinians but would have to include all the other parties, especially Syria. Indeed, according to Richardson’s statements on Monday, Syria must be engaged not just to promote a comprehensive peace deal between Arabs and Israelis but also to promote regional stability in general.

To serve the same purpose Richardson also proposed that the US needs to “talk to Iran” despite the positions of its president. Arguing that it would be a security threat to the region and beyond, he still thought that the way to win Iran was to talk with it rather than to go to war against it. The US, he said, could press Russia to exercise more influence on Iran in view of the close ties and cooperation, including nuclear, between Moscow and Tehran. Sanctions, he added, if adhered to at the international level, could also be an option.

Overall, Richardson was arguing the case for Washington to be more dependant on the apparatus of multilateralism, especially the UN and international law, and including the International Court of Justice, to promote its policies. “It is time that the US provides new leadership,” he said. He added that this leadership should be inspired by “an ethical new realism that is based less on military and more on diplomacy.”

Through diplomacy, Richardson argued, the US could combat terrorism, prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons among states and non-state actors and secure its interests. But, he added, it would also have to make commitments to participate in the containment of global warming and in putting a human face to globalisation.

Richardson, who once took the seat of the US permanent representative to the UN, is hoping to be a vice-president for Obama or a secretary of state. Given that like Obama Richardson is a minority face, as he represents the Hispanics, either post would seem quite a challenge for him. He, however, is sure to end up on Obama’s team if Obama becomes the next US president.