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Obama, who takes over on Jan 20, said that there could be delay in his election pledge to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison camps, but indicated reluctance to probe the charges that previous administration evesdropped and tapped public at large.
Appearing in the ABC News programme 'This Week' just days ahead of his swearing-in, Obama pledged to take prompt action ‘from day one’ on the Middle East peace process and warned that Iran's nuclear ambitions might trigger arms race in the region.
"What I am doing right now is putting together the team so that on January 20th, starting on day one, we have the best possible people who are going to be immediately engaged in the Middle East peace process as a whole, Obama said on ABC News programme 'This Week'.
"That are going to be engaging with all of the actors there. That will work to create a strategic approach that ensures that both Israelis and Palestinians can meet their aspirations," Obama said replying to a query on Gaza conflict.
Israel indicated on Sunday that it was mulling to stop its war on Hamas, amid clashes of an offensive that has killed nearly 900 people in the Gaza Strip.
On Iran's nuclear issue, Obama said, "I think that Iran is going to be one of our biggest challenges. We have a situation in which they are pursuing a nuclear weapon that could potentially trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East."
"And we are going to have to take a new approach. And I've outlined my belief that engagement is the place to start," Obama said.
On the time-frame for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention centres, Obama said, "I think it's going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak to help design exactly what we need to do."
"It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realise," the president-elect explained in what analysts say is an indication that he now plans to take a more measured approach than what he had advocated during his campaign.
The Guantanamo Bay prison holds some 250 ‘war on terror’ suspects, mostly from Afghanistan.
Indicating reluctance to order a broad inquiry into the Bush administration's controversial programmes about eavesdropping and interrogations, Obama voiced his willingness to get specific cases investigated.
Obama said his team is still evaluating the whole issue of interrogations and detentions.
"Obviously, we are looking at past practices and I don't believe anyone is above the law," he told ABC.
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One can wish Obama good luck as he is sworn in. The US has backed Israelis all through, often at variance with the sentiments of of the world but to keep its rich Jewish constituency happy. Both Israel and Palestine need to adopt realistic goals to give peace a chance and US must act in a bipartisan manner to support the move. Unconditional US support to Israel is not helpful.
The Pakistani PM has cried hoarse about the civilian casualties in Palestine. My question to him is - does he have enough evidence that missiles/bombs from Israeli army killed the scool children in Palestine? It is very likely that Hamas might have killed the school children to tarnish the image of Israel. Even if they were Israeli bombs, where is the evidence that it was triggered by army insead of a non-state actor? Where is the goddamn evidence?
UN told Israel attcked school and Israel has admiited it. Your argument is highly illogical.SHAME on the so called international community(US and allies-dictated by Israel) as it punishes our old friend Iran for ignoring UNSC resolution on one side and gets slaps in the face for the same action from Israel.