DUBAI, UAE -- Dear President-elect Obama: Salaam, I am not sure if this will ever pass your eyes. At a time when the whole world is excited about your landmark election and everybody who is somebody is talking about your meteoric rise, this is likely to be dismissed as just another outpouring of emotions from the Middle East.

NABLUS, West Bank -- As the road dips and rises through the Hebron hills, white etched with the glowing green of vineyards, the turnoff to Edna village is marked by the grey, concrete watchtower of an Israeli checkpoint. But it doesn't deter Israeli-Arab lawyer Khaled Kasab Mohammed from his quixotic mission: he has come to the West Bank to educate Palestinians about the Jewish Holocaust.

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States was greeted with elation around the world with crowds taking to the streets to express their joy from Washington, D.C. to Nairobi. Congratulatory messages to the new president came pouring in from world leaders and from some rather unexpected sources as well.

Reactions to the election of a new U.S. president are fusing from across the Arab and Muslim world. Reflecting the fundamental interests of the various regimes and movements, the most radical groups - including al-Qaida - have been sending messages in different directions.

AMMAN -- The George W. Bush administration will establish the first official U.S. diplomatic presence in Tehran before it leaves office, according to reports published last week.

PARIS -- Is oil on its way out? Recent weeks have seen a spectacular collapse in demand for oil brought about by alarm signals of recession in major industrial countries, following the unprecedented turmoil in world financial markets.

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami recently hinted a possible return to the national scene, but many are questioning the relevance of this comeback and how it could affect the quest for reform and Tehran's nuclear crisis with the international community.

The next U.S. president will have precious little time to engage leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran in "head-to-head negotiations" over their nuclear weapons program. Whoever becomes the next president will temporarily be required to shelve efforts to bridge the gap between Palestinians and Israelis (efforts that have proven to be a diplomatic minefield for the last two U.S. presidents – at least) and focus attention exclusively on the impending military confrontation with Iran.

JERUSALEM -- In an upping of the tit for tat rhetoric between Tel Aviv and Tehran, several senior Iranian officials have recommended a pre-emptive strike on Israel in order to neutralize any Israeli attempt to bomb the Islamic republic's alleged nuclear facilities.

Iran and the United States may be poles apart politically, but when it comes to elections they have something in common. The Iranian presidential elections will be held in June 2009 but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already been campaigning for some time. His speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York last month will be replayed repeatedly back in the Islamic Republic to show him as an international leader of stature.