Talks on Mideast set

Utahns concerned about their nation's reputation in the Middle East will have an opportunity to hear from experts on the topic during an upcoming lecture series at the University of Utah.

The "U.S. Public Diplomacy In the Middle East" series starts Monday, Jan. 24, with a lecture by Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.

Telhami's writings on the Middle East include the best-seller "The Stakes: America, Iraq and the Middle East."

Ibrahim Karawan, director of the U. Middle East Center, said the lecturers will present different perspectives on "the question of the deterioration of America's public image in the Middle East."

Participants will address the contributions to a negative public image and present solutions, Karawan said. The lectures will inspire a public report with recommendations, which will be made available to policy makers, he said.

However, Karawan said the lectures will be of interest to the general public as well.

"It is people who travel abroad, people who follow what is happening abroad have been struck by the fact, why do some people hate or disagree with American policy so much," he said. "That is a matter of American national interest. . . . We want to raise from that perspective of the speakers and the commentators, their own comments, impressions, analysis."

The free public lectures will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts' Dumke Auditorium. The presentations will be available via live Web cast at www.hum.utah.edu/news/broadcasts/2005/mec_lecture2005.html

This is the fourth year of the lecture series, which started with a discussion on international terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Karawan said.

Other speakers will include:

• Feb. 17: Ambassador Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. His book, "The Missing Peace," about the search for peace in the Middle East during the Clinton administration, is scheduled to be published this summer.

• March 2: Hisham Melhem, Washington bureau chief for As-Safir, a Lebanese daily newspaper, correspondent for the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Qabas and senior analyst for al-Arabiya TV.