Al – Jazeera has the reactions of world leaders to the election of president-elect Barack Obama. Check it out, many nations are holding Obama to his word and expecting changes in American relations with the rest of the world:
Mahmoud Abbas:
“President Abbas congratulates US president-elect Barack Obama in his name and in the name of the Palestinian people and hopes he will speed up efforts to achieve peace, particularly since a resolution of the Palestinian problem and the Israeli-Arab conflict is key to world peace,” Nabil Abu Rudeina, Abbas’s spokesman, said.
“President Abbas hopes the new administration will continue to make the peace efforts one of its top priorities.”
Hamas:
“He must learn from the mistakes of the previous administrations, including that of Bush which has destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine,” said Fawzi Barhum, a Hamas spokesman.
“He must improve US ties with the rest of the world rather than wave the big American stick.
“We want him to support the Palestinian cause or at least not to be biased towards the Israeli occupation. We have no problem establishing normal relations with the United States to explain our just cause.”
Iran:
Iran’s official news agency quoted a leading politician as saying that Obama’s election win was a rejection of the policies of George Bush, the current US president.
“Obama’s victory is… evidence that Bush’s policies have failed,” Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said, according to IRNA.
“Americans have no option but to change their policies to save themselves from the quagmire Bush has created for them.”
The government daily newspaper Iran said in an editorial on Wednesday that McCain’s failure to take the presidency lay with Bush.
“Defeat for the Republicans is the price they pay for Bush’s strategic and tactical blunders,” the newspaper said.
Mohammad Hasan Aboutorabi-Fard, Iran’s deputy parliament speaker, called on Obama to make good on his promises to bring change.
“Obama is expected to learn from Bush’s failed policies and correct America’s wrong policies in the Middle East,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
Nicolas Sarkozy:
“Your brilliant victory rewards a tireless commitment to serve the American people. It also crowns an exceptional campaign whose inspiration and exaltation have proved to the entire world the vitality of American democracy. By choosing you, the American people have chosen change, openness and optimism”
The Sudan:
“The result of the election is a purely domestic affair, but certainly the United States, being the only big power in the world, it affects almost everything in other countries,” said Ali al-Sadiq, a spokesman for Sudan’s foreign ministry.
“We would hope that the slogan of president Obama – ‘change’ – would be reflected in the foreign policy in the United States, especially towards Sudan and oppressed countries, the Palestinians, the Iraqis and the Somalis.
“We would like to see some real change between Sudan and the United States.”
Somalia:
“I am congratulating Barack Obama for his election as the president of United States of America,” Yusuf said in a statement released by his spokesman.
“I am hopeful that he will help end major crises in the world, particulary the endless conflict in my country Somalia. This was an historic election in which a proper leader was elected. This is a great moment for America and Africa.”
Australia:
“Twenty-five years ago Martin Luther King [the US civil right activist] had a dream of an America where men and women would be judged not on the colour of their skin but on the content of their character,” Rudd told said.
“Today what America has done is turn that dream into a reality. A world which is in many respects fearful for its future.”
Read the comments in full at Al Jazeera.