Obama vows to tackle Mideast peace 'on day one'

U.S. president-elect Barack Obama on Sunday vowed to take swift action on the Middle East peace process and Iran's nuclear ambitions but played for time to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

In an interview with ABC's This Week program, Obama defended his reluctance to speak out on Israel's bloody offensive in the Gaza Strip before he succeeds President George W. Bush on Jan. 20.

But while he promised rapid efforts on the peace process and diplomatic engagement with Iran, Obama said it would be a "challenge" to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in his first 100 days in office.

Middle East

Obama said he was building a diplomatic team so that "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."

The team would "be engaging with all of the actors there" so that "both Israelis and Palestinians can meet their aspirations," Obama said.

Until then, he said again that he would leave the Bush administration to speak on foreign policy but indicated some continuity to the peace process.

"I think that if you look not just at the Bush administration, but also what happened under the (Bill) Clinton administration, you are seeing the general outlines of an approach," Obama said in the interview taped Saturday.

Obama noted remarks by Vice President Dick Cheney last week that his team should carefully study the outgoing administration's peace approach before throwing it away just to make a political point.

"I think that was pretty good advice," the president-elect said. "I should know what's going on before we make judgments and that we shouldn't be making judgments on the basis of incomplete information or campaign rhetoric."

Under the Bush administration, the United States has been accused by the Palestinians of siding uncritically with Israel to the detriment of the peace process overall.

Obama stood by his words of July, during a visit to Israel, when he said: "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."

Asked by ABC if he would repeat the remark in Israel now, he said: "I think that's a basic principle of any country is that they've got to protect their citizens."

Israel indicated for the first time Sunday that an end was in sight to its war on the Palestinian group Hamas, amid some of the heaviest clashes of an offensive that has killed nearly 900 people in the Gaza Strip.

If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing,

U.S. president-elect Barack Obama

Iran

Obama meanwhile said he will take a new approach toward Iran that will emphasize respect for the Iranian people and spell out what the United States expects of its leaders.

"Iran is going to be one of our biggest challenges," Obama said in the interview with ABC.

Obama said he was concerned about the Islamic republic's support of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and about Iran's nuclear enrichment, which he said could trigger a Middle
East arms race.

In a shift from President George W. Bush's policies, Obama has said he would seek much broader engagement with Iran.

"We are going to have to take a new approach. And I've outlined my belief that engagement is the place to start," he said.

Washington accuses Tehran of seeking a nuclear weapon but Tehran insists its nuclear program is for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity.

Obama said he was prepared to offer Iran economic incentives to stop its nuclear program but he also has said tougher sanctions could be imposed if it refused.

We are going to have to take a new approach. And I've outlined my belief that engagement is the place to start,

U.S. president-elect Barack Obama

Guantanamo

When asked about his promise to close the controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay, which still holds some 250 "war on terror" suspects, Obama said: "It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize.”

He said his legal and national security advisers were working out the best approach. But Obama added emphatically that the base would be closed.

"I don't want to be ambiguous about this," he said.

"We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our constitution," he said, vowing also that his administration would not torture terror suspects.

We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our constitution,

U.S. president-elect Barack Obama