Obama warns Iran ahead of Middle East trip

Jun 2, 2009, 10:03 GMT

Berlin/Washington - US President Barack Obama has warned Iran it has until the end of 2009 to make progress in talks on its disputed nuclear programme - in a series of interviews Tuesday on the eve of his trip to the Middle East.

Obama is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia Wednesday, before heading to Cairo on Thursday for a keynote speech billed as an address to the Muslim world.

Speaking to both the BBC and US National Public Radio (NPR) on Monday before leaving Washington, Obama stressed he still wanted 'tough, direct diplomacy' with Tehran.

But he told the BBC: 'What I have said is that it is in the world's interests for Iran to set aside ambitions for a nuclear weapon.

'Although I don't want to put artificial time tables on that process we do want to make sure that, by the end of this year, we've actually seen a serious process move forward,' he said.

Although Obama has previously visited Iraq, this week's trip is his first major trip as president to the region.

Asked about the rejection by the new Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of his call to halt Jewish settlement building in the West Bank, Obama urged patience.

'Diplomacy is always a matter of a long hard slog. It's never a matter of quick results.'

Obama is set to give a major speech on relations between the US and Muslim nations in Cairo on Thursday, before travelling to Europe to take part in World War Two D-Day commemorations.

Asked about the human rights record of Egypt's President Hosny Mubarak, Obama said he would prefer the US to act as a 'role model', rather than 'impose' its values on other countries.

There were 'universal principles', he told the BBC, which other nations could 'embrace and affirm as part of their national identity.'

'The danger, I think, is when the United States or any country, thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture.'

On NPR, he was more specific about his difficult early relationship with Netanyahu, who visited Washington last month.

'Part of being a good friend is being honest. And I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests, but also US interests.

'And that's part of a new dialogue that I'd like to see encouraged in the region,' he added.

Asked about the increasing death toll of civilians in Afghanistan, and how that Muslim death toll would undermine the message of his Cairo speech, Obama invoked the terror attacks on the US of September 11, 2001.

'Every time you have civilian casualties, that always complicates things, whether [it's in] a Muslim or non-Muslim country,' he told NPR.

'Part of what I'll be addressing in my speech [is a] reminder that the reason we're in Afghanistan is very simple: three thousand Americans were killed.'

'You had a devastating attack on the American homeland. The organisation that planned those attacks intends to carry out further attacks.'

'We cannot stand by and allow that to happen.'

Citing Obama's inauguration speech where he promised an 'open hand' if hostile regimes offered to 'unclench their fist', NPR asked the US president about Washington's different approaches to Iran, and to Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, and Lebanon's Hezbollah group.

'Iran is a huge, significant nation-state that has, across the international community, been recognised as such,' he replied. 'Hezbollah and Hamas are not. I don't think we have to approach those entities in the same way.'