Analysis: Richard Beeston | Comment Central: Obama marks a momentous occasion | Full text of speech

In a coffee shop in Jerusalem’s Old City, Faez Abu Assad, 42, wiped sweat from his face as he watched Barack Obama acknowledge the Palestinians’ “intolerable” suffering and call for an end to new Israeli settlements.

“His words for us are like drops of water for the man walking in the desert,” the waiter said. “But these are only words. We need him to show us action, and today — not tomorrow.”

In the Haret Hreik district of southern Beirut a group of Hezbollah supporters gathered in a gardenia-scented sitting room to watch Mr Obama speak of a new beginning in US relations with the Muslim world. “These are sweet words, but let’s see what he’s going to do,” said Abu Haider, 32, as he drank Turkish coffee.

In the Miramar restaurant in Edgware Road, London’s little Arabia, Egyptian workers listened. “It was a speech in generalities. It wasn’t a problem to anybody,” said Bayomi Abdul Aziz, 26. “But we want him to carry it through. We want him to live up to the positive image we have of him.”

Mr Obama’s speech was not broadcast live by Iranian or Syrian state TV, and only in English in Afghanistan, but he was watched by millions of Muslims in souks and coffee houses, lobbies and living rooms, in dozens of countries throughout the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Mr Obama’s speech was not broadcast live by Iranian or Syrian state television, and only in English in Afghanistan, but in souks and coffee houses, lobbies and living rooms, in dozens of countries throughout the Middle East, Asia and Africa yesterday tens of millions of Muslims watched him on television screens.

They saw a US President greet them in Arabic — “Assalaam alaykum” — quote repeatedly from the Koran and talk of his own Muslim roots. It certainly caught their attention, and just in case it didn’t, the White House sent out free text messages in Arabic, Farsi and Urdu.

But Mr Obama’s audience on this occasion was more jaded than those he addresses in the West. These people have heard too many fine speeches from American presidents and watched too many new starts fizzle out. To the extent that there was a common reaction, it was that Mr Obama was a welcome change from President Bush and his War on Terror, and that Mr Obama’s desire to engage — not confront — the Muslim world was a blessed relief.

“All we want as Muslims is for there to be a partnership. And he was seriously humble. Humility is important for us,” said Shahinda al-Bahgouri, 20, a Cairo student.

But there was also a feeling that his speech ducked some of the hardest issues. Some complained that he talked of the Holocaust but ignored the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza, others that he decried Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons but made only the briefest allusion to Israel’s arsenal.

Some were disappointed that he did not condemn more strongly some of the repressive regimes that Washington counts as allies, others that US troops will remain in Iraq until 2012.

“I think the goodwill is there, but it takes a lot of courage and decisiveness to make a breakthrough and I didn’t see much,” said Nawara Mahfoud, 26, a Syrian student in London, who would have been much more impressed had Mr Obama shunned the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, neither of them champions of human rights, before his speech.

Ahmad Suleiman, a teacher in the Jordanian capital of Amman, hoped Mr Obama would say more about democracy and personal freedoms. “He’s trying to be nice to all our dictators, who are the real source of all our problems, because he needs to have them on his side,” he said.

“I don’t trust him,” said Wahyudin, 57, the head of an Islamic school in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, who wants all Western forces withdrawn from Muslim countries. “He’s just trying to apologise to Muslims because of what America — or Bush — has done in the past. He’s promising to be different but that’s all it is — a promise.”

“It was a good speech,” said Mossad Omar, 42, a chef at the Miramar. “But the question remains. Will he pressure the Israelis and stop them building settlements and turning Palestinians out of their homes? Unless he does that it’s going to be just one more speech.”

As Mr Obama admitted: “No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust.” But most of the Muslim world at least gave him credit for trying.