Excerpts: Obama to visit Kenya. White House re Netanyahu. Saudi re Putin
hypocrisy. March 30, 2015

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 30 March’15:”Obama to make landmark presidential
trip to father’s homeland,Kenya”, by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Obama to visit Kenya

QUOTE:”Obama has visited Africa four times since becoming president, but has
not visited the country where he still has relatives.”

FULL TEXT:Barack Obama will make a long-awaited trip to Kenya later this
year, visiting his father’s homeland for the first time since becoming US
president six years ago, the White House said Monday[30 March].

During the long-promised visit this July, Obama will attend a Global
Entrepreneurship Summit in the east African nation, a statement said.

Obama has visited Africa four times since becoming president, but has not
visited the country where he still has relatives.

For much of Obama’s presidency, Kenya’s leaders have been under a cloud of
prosecution by the International Criminal Court.Kenyatta was indicted over
the country’s 2007-08 post-election violence, the worst since it won
independence from Britain in 1963.Kenyatta has always protested his
innocence.The case was dropped in December, with prosecutors complaining
that they had been undermined by a lack of cooperation by the Kenyan
government, as well as the bribing or intimidation of witnesses.

“President Obama will meet him in Kenya,” a White House official told AFP,
confirming a meeting that is likely to court controversy.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the United States regularly
raises “concerns with the Kenyan government about restrictions on human
rights and fundamental freedoms.”“The president’s trip will create another
opportunity for dialogue with the government and civil society on these
issues.”

Obama had visited Kenya before as a senator and before entering politics,
visiting his father’s home village and taking a very public HIV test.

The president’s origins have spurred domestic controversy, with some
hardline political foes claiming he was not born in the United States and so
was ineligible to become president.Obama allies say this is thinly veiled
racism.The president has often made light of the controversy.“If I did not
love America, I wouldn’t have moved here from Kenya,” he recently joked.

On this visit, Obama expected to take part in the Global Entrepreneurship
Summit (GES), which is being held in sub-Saharan Africa for the first time.“Hosting
the GES is an opportunity for Kenya to showcase its economic progress,” said
the White House official.“Kenya maintains enormous potential for economic
growth, thanks to the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the Kenyan
people

+++Jordan Times 30 March ’15:”White House showed ‘reprehensible animosity’
towards Netanyahu”, by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: White House re Netanyahu
QUOTE:”The Obama administration has displayed ‘reprehensible animosity’
towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, House Speaker John
Boehner says”
FULL TEXT:WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has displayed "reprehensible
animosity" towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, House Speaker
John Boehner says.

Netanyahu's recent election victory dramatically exacerbated a diplomatic
crisis with Washington, bringing his thorny relationship with US President
Barack Obama into sharp focus.

In a bid to ramp up votes, Netanyahu had veered sharply to the right, vowing
there would be no Palestinian state on his watch, promising to increase
settlement construction and warning that Arab Israeli voters were going "in
droves" to the polls, drawing a rebuke from the White House.

Republican Boehner, who invited Netanyahu to Washington in the lead-up to
the Israeli election without consulting the White House, told CNN's "State
of the Union" on Sunday[30 Mar.]: "I think the animosity exhibited by our
administration toward the prime minister of Israel is reprehensible.

"And I think that the pressure that they've put on him over the last four or
five years has, frankly, pushed him to the point where he had to speak up. I
don't blame him at all for speaking up."

Boehner said his trip this week to Israel was planned "months ago".

"So it's not quite what I would describe as a victory lap," he added.


+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 30 March ’15:”Putin letter to Arab summit triggers
strong Saudi attack”, by Reuters

SUBJECT: Saudi re Putin hypocrisy

QUOTE:”Saudi Arabia accused…Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday [30 Mar.], telling
an Arab summit that he should not express for the Middle East while fueling
instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar Assad”

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir
Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday[30 Mar.], telling an Arab summit that he should
not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by
supporting Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

In a rare move, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi announced that a
letter from Putin would be read out to the gathering in Egypt, where Arab
leaders discussed an array of regional crises, including conflicts in Syria,
Yemen and Libya.

"We support the Arabs' aspirations for a prosperous future and for the
resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means,
without any external interference," Putin said in the letter.

His comments triggered a sharp attack from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince
Saud Al Faisal.

"He speaks about the problems in the Middle East as though Russia is not
influencing these problems," he told the summit right after the letter was
read out.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia have been cool over Moscow's
support for Assad, whom Riyadh opposes. The civil war between Assad's forces
and rebels has cost more than 200,000 lives in four years.

"They speak about tragedies in Syria while they are an essential part of the
tragedies befalling the Syrian people, by arming the Syrian regime above and
beyond what it needs to fight its own people," Prince Saud said.

"I hope that the Russian president corrects this so that the Arab world's
relations with Russia can be at their best level."

The Saudi rebuke may have been awkward for summit host Egypt, which depends
heavily on billions of dollars in support from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf
Arab allies, but has also improved ties with Moscow.

In February, Putin received a grand welcome in Egypt, signalling a
rapprochement.
===============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA