Egypt's New Leader Warns Obama: USA Must Change...http://drudge.tw/SjSQoh
7:49 PM - 22 Sep 12 · Details
Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
President Mohamed Morsi will travel to New York on Sunday for a United Nations meeting.
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: September 22, 2012 1248 Comments
Mohamed Morsi: Interview ExcerptsCAIRO — On the eve of his first trip to the United States as Egypt’s new Islamist president,Mohamed Morsi said the United States needed to fundamentally change its approach to the Arab world, showing greater respect for its values and helping build a Palestinian state, if it hoped to overcome decades of pent-up anger.
- 1:28
U.S. Role in the Middle East
- 1:23
Protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo
- 1:31
Relationship With the U.S. and Palestinians
- 2:19
Muslim Brotherhood
- 3:32
Coptic Christians and Women
Answers to Reader Questions
The authors, David D. Kirkpatrick and Steven Erlanger, responded to some of the most central and thought-provoking questions on their interview with President Mohamed Morsi.
Readers’ Comments
The reporters who interviewed President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt will respond to selected questions and comments on Monday. Please post your reactions to the interview and ideas about what you would have asked Mr. Morsi.
A former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood andEgypt’s first democratically elected president, Mr. Morsi sought in a 90-minute interview with The New York Times to introduce himself to the American public and to revise the terms of relations between his country and the United States after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, an autocratic but reliable ally.
He said it was up to Washington to repair relations with the Arab world and to revitalize the alliance with Egypt, long a cornerstone of regional stability.
If Washington is asking Egypt to honor its treaty with Israel, he said, Washington should also live up to its own Camp David commitment to Palestinian self-rule. He said the United States must respect the Arab world’s history and culture, even when that conflicts with Western values.
And he dismissed criticism from the White House that he did not move fast enough to condemn protesters who recently climbed over the United States Embassy wall and burned the American flag in anger over a video that mocked the Prophet Muhammad.
“We took our time” in responding to avoid an explosive backlash, he said, but then dealt “decisively” with the small, violent element among the demonstrators.
