Citizen diplomats seize Obama's mantel to meet with anyone

Only one day following the election of President-elect Barack

Obama, a delegation of US citizens led by former Chief of Mission

in Baghdad, Edward Peck, set out from Washington, DC to Beirut,

Lebanon, with one question: "What do the people of the Middle East

want from the new administration in Washington".The delegation is sponsored by the Council for the National

Interest, a Middle East non-profit based out of Washington, DC. The

15-member delegation consists of former State Department Officers,

stockbrokers, and Republicans-turned Obama supports. Accompanying the trip is an independent reporter and author,

Philip Smucker, who is filming the reaction of opposition leaders

and Middle Eastern statesmen to this curious and determined group

of citizen diplomats.Members of the delegation have met with Hezbollah and Hamas,

including Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, the religious

leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon. On Wednesday in Damascus, Syria,

CNI and Smucker met with Khaled Meshaal, chairmen of Hamas'

"Political Bureau" and a founder of the group, which has been

listed in Washington as a "terrorist" organization. During a 90-minute meeting with the Hamas leader, Smucker

asked, "Do you have, say, any points of advice as President-elect

Obama starts his efforts in Middle East peace-making?" Khaled

Meshaal Chuckled and stated: "Will he respond to them"? After a

moment of contemplation Mashaal laid out three points for the

President Elect."My First Advice is that the president's administration has

to have honest counselors who understand the people of the region;

Arabs and Islamic people and Palestinian people. The key for

cooperation is to respect, not to acquiesce them. The men in this

region - if you want to own them, you have to respect them,

pressurizing him will lead him to explode. It is right for the US

to care about its own interests and we in the region are not

against the American interest. But the USA has to respect the

interests of the region. Can President Obama create a new, balanced

policy that will care at parallel levels for the new American

interests and the regional interests"? "This concerned group of American Citizens has drawn

fascinating insights from groups that American diplomats are

forbidden to meet with" stated Smucker. It is the objective of the

delegation to begin the dialogue that the President-elect has

promised. The CNI delegation and Philip Smucker will be traveling to

Ramallah and then on to Jerusalem were they will meet with leaders

of both Palestinians and Israeli. They have hopes of reaching Gaza

before they return home later this month.