Action, not words wanted

CAIRO: Muslims around the world, including the Palestinian militant group Hamas, said Obama's outreach in a speech yesterday was a positive shift in US attitude but fell short of a breakthrough because it lacked concrete proposals to turn the words into action.

"There is a change between the speech of President Obama and previous speeches made by George Bush," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. But he complained that Obama did not specifically note the suffering in Gaza following the three-week Israeli incursion earlier this year and did not apologize for US military attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"So all we can say is that there is a difference in the statements, and the statements of today did not include a mechanism that can translate his wishes and views into actions," said Barhoum.