To President Obama, following his key speech on the 'Arab spring' and the US's role in the Middle East

Mr. President
As they always listen to the voice of America’s leaders and people, today the people of Tunisia and all the people of the MENA region have carefully listened to your speech at the State Department, a fitted venue to launch the US new Middle East policy of promoting reform across the region, and supporting transitions to democracy. As usual, you have Mr. President masterfully tackled the issue of democracy for which the Tunisian people and all the people of the MENA country are desperately seeking to embrace. You have delineated how they peacefully stood to decades of dictatorship and suffered from a savage repression and mass killing. I shall add that they are still standing and still suffering from violent repression and counter revolutionary attempts from the remaining of the dictatorships and their attempts to remain at office. People from this part of the world are aware that the road to democracy is paved with all sorts of hurdles, this is the reason why they are desperately seeking a genuine help to achieve the objectives of their peaceful revolutions, for which they have already paid a high tribute.  What is emerging from the recent upraises is that that the world cannot go on with an oppressed Arab world. The Arab people are clearly expressing that they want to be part of the modern societies while keeping their cultural characteristics and religious beliefs. They have clearly shown that they overwhelmingly reject all form of terror and primary anti Americanism. Our people value education and know the importance of peace.

They also highly value America’s technical and scientific advances and they want to remind the word that if liberated from dictatorship they can be as many good assets to human kind progress and significantly contribute as they did in the past.

Mr. President we strongly believe that there is a real opportunity here to make Tunisia a laboratory for developing the best democratic model for this part of the world. This is probably a tedious task and a real challenge very much like Hercules twelve labours but definitely worth undertaking. To succeed, such laboratory will need all kinds of support essentially at the economic and social levels and we greet your intention to call the International Monetary Fund and the G-8 summit to help Tunisia recover from the disruption of their democratic upheaval. However, most Tunisians are still afraid to be denied democracy. An action of good will would be for the international community led by the US, to help the Tunisian getting hold of and equitably judging the dictator and his accomplices and mainly retrieve the frozen assets stolen by the former governors. Urgent and fair justice is of paramount importance to Tunisians and would be the best gateway to a successful democratic state. Mr. President, allow me to remind you of the famous American saying “Justice delay is justice denial”.

You have also tackled the issue of terrorism that was and still coupled to this part of the world in the mind of Americans and many others and this is a material for a lot of trauma to most of the innocent Arab and Muslims throughout the world. We formally ask you, now that the war on terror is clearly backed by the Arab populations, to work together on reversing this harmful image largely contributed by former policies and served by an irresponsible press.

You stated Mr. President that the Arab people have achieved more in a short timeframe through peaceful revolution than with  decades of terrorism, Let’s just stress that terrorism was carried out by a negligible part of the MENA people and that the vast majority of our people was suffering from state terrorism run by their own dictators leaders. I shall add that the war on terror may not resume soon, as terror is rooted into decades of obscure dictatorship and the most efficient way to uproot terrorism is to uproot dictatorship. We wish to never ever see any kind of support to any potential dictatorship which is the essence for promoting despair and hate.

Regarding the Middle East trickiest issue you have Mr. President pledged to pursue the two-state solution to achieve a durable peace. This is a quite respectable endeavor however we wish to know how the US will proceed to persuade Israel to embrace this solution; and how the US will help building a viable Palestinian state. We believe that peace between Palestinians and Israel is badly needed and it can be achieved only within a frame work of a genuine mutual respect of each party rights and obligations and through a win/win sustainable peace treaty.

On another hand, with regards to the dual and what might seem contradictory attitude of the US toward the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions and the Bahrain turmoil, you have Mr. president clearly introduced the difference between the different situations and explained US opposition to Iran's intolerance, its illicit nuclear program, and its sponsorship of terror. Within this framework we could add that Bahrain’s problem stems from the fact that Iran is playing a dangerous and politically irresponsible game of promoting communities confrontation and illegitimate interference in the Arab world affairs. Because of Iran’s interferences, the peaceful upraise of a segment of the Bahrain population with its legitimate social demands, that was on the way of a peaceful settlement through dialogue, turned into a violent tentative to overthrow the government.

Mr. President, It is a good time for positive changes and peace, a time for mutual respect and true understanding. The Arab people are ready, this is a historic opportunity and we are looking forward to see the US new foreign policy translate into tangible results.

Prof Dahmani Fathallah
* Tunisian Academic