Obama Says U.S. Opens ’New Chapter’ in Middle East

On Syria, Obama said the government "has chosen the path of murder and the mass arrests of its citizens." He praised the Syrian people for their courage in standing up to repression in a bloody crackdown that has killed hundreds.

Obama said the region's revolutions speak to a "longing for freedom" that has built up for years and has led to the overturning of tyrants - with perhaps more to fall.

He embraced the call for change and compared it to signature moments of US history such as the American revolution and the civil rights movement.

The president spoke at the State Department in his first comprehensive remarks on the astonishing ripples of change in the Middle East. He hailed the killing of al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and declared that bin Laden's vision of destruction was fading even before US forces shot him dead.

Obama compared the upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa to the American revolution and said democracy movements have accomplished in a matter of months the kind of changes that terrorists were unable to achieve in decades.

“The events of the past six months show us that strategies of repression and strategies of diversion will not work anymore,” Obama said in an address at the State Department in Washington. “Two leaders have stepped aside. More may follow.”

The U.S. will support all efforts to meet the legitimate aspirations of the region’s citizens and promote democracy and economic development, he said.

Obama said that for decades the U.S. has pursued core interests in the region including countering terrorism, stemming the flow of nuclear weapons and standing up for Israel’s security along with pursuing Middle East peace.

White those goals remain important, he said, the U.S. “must acknowledge that a strategy based solely upon the narrow pursuits of these interests will not fill an empty stomach.”

Today’s speech comes almost two years after he called for a “new beginning” with the Arab world, at a time of great uncertainty in the region with sweeping and still evolving democratic movements taking shape.

Obama said the "shouts of human dignity are being heard across the region."

The president noted that some "true leaders" had stepped down and that "more may follow".

He quoted civilian protesters who have pushed for change in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen but noted that among those countries, only Egypt had seen the departure of a long-ruling autocratic leader.

Obama said that while there will be setbacks that accompany progress with political transitions, the movements present a valuable opportunity for the US to show which side it is on.

"We have a chance to show that America values the dignity of the street vendor in Tunisia more than the raw power of a dictator," he said, referring to the fruit vendor who killed himself in despair and sparked a chain of events that unleashed uprisings around the Arab world.