Al Qaeda deputy rejects Obama's overtures to Muslims

Deputy Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri rejected US President Barack Obama's overtures to the Muslim world in remarks circulated Monday.
'America came to us with a new face, attempting to fool us with it,' al-Zawahiri said of Obama in remarks posted on militant websites and circulated by the Washington-based SITE Institute Monday.
Obama's face was 'a face that calls for change, but to change us, so that we give up our faith and our rights, not to change their crimes', al-Zawahiri said.
The 57-year-old, Egyptian-born doctor, Al Qaeda's chief ideologue and Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, further criticised Obama's plans to increase the number of US soldiers in Afghanistan, saying they would 'add fuel to the fire'.
Al-Zawahiri urged tribal leaders in the Pashtun tribal regions straddling the Pakistani-Afghan border not to make deals with the Pakistani government, saying the government 'was cheating' them at the US' behest.