US President George W. Bush is expected to give interviews to Arab media starting Wednesday in the framework of a White House effort to "mitigate Arab discontent" over American policy in the Middle East, administration officials said.
Bush's first interview will be with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram at the White House, and officials said he would speak to other media outlets including Arab TV on later dates.
"The president will speak directly to the Arab world," Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said in her own interview with Al-Arabiya on Tuesday.
"It's just extremely important that we continue to talk to the people of the region directly," she said.
"We want everyone to understand that the United States believes in peace," Rice continued. "And the United States has tried in the Arab world and around the world to stand for a set of values. We believe that when people hear our story, that they will understand, at least, then for themselves." (Albawaba.com)
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