Barack Obama plans to make a major policy speech in an Islamic capital.
“I think we’ve got a unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular,” the president-elect said in an interview published Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune, his first with a newspaper since his election.
Obama said his aim was to “create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of good will who want their citizens and ours to prosper together.”
His diplomacy, including the planned address in an Islamic capital, would couple tolerance with resolve on combating terrorism, he told the paper.
“The message I want to send is that we will be unyielding in stamping out the terrorist extremism we saw in Mumbai,” Obama said, referring to terrorist attacks in India last month that targeted westerners in general and Jews in particular.
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