Morsi sets terms for US-Arab ties

DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK & STEVEN ERLANGER

On the eve of his first trip to the US as Egypt's new Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi said the US needed to fundamentally change its approach to the Arab world, showing greater respect for its values and helping build a Palestinian state, if it hoped to overcome decades of pent-up anger.

A former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's first democratically elected president, Morsi sought in a 90-minute interview with The New York Times to introduce himself to the US public and to revise the terms of relations between his country and the US after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

He said it was up to Washington to repair relations with the Arab world and to revitalise the alliance with Egypt.

If Washington is asking Egypt to honour its treaty with Israel, he said, Washington should also live up to its own Camp David commitment to Palestinian self-rule. He said the US must respect the Arab world's history, even when that conflicts with Western values.

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