By Helene Cooper - New York Times
President Obama inserted himself directly into the stalled Middle East peace negotiations on Tuesday exhorting Israeli and Palestinian officials to make haste in formally relaunching peace talks and calling it absolutely critical" that the two sides move quickly toward a comprehensive peace accord.
It is past time to stop talking about starting negotiations and time to move forward" Mr. Obama said. His strong comments came just after he met separately with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and and the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas but before he went into a three-way meeting intended to further drive home that message.
Permanent status negotiations must begin and begin soon" Mr. Obama said referring to the entrenched final status issues which have bedeviled peace negotiators since 1979: the status of Jerusalem the borders of a future Palestinian state the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the fate of Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced to leave their homes.
So my message to these two is clear" Mr. Obama said standing with Mr. Abbas and Mr. Netanyahu. Despite all the obstacles all the history all the mistrust we have to find a way forward."
The meetings came on the outskirts of the United Nations General Assembly opening which is ongoing in New York this week. Administration officials were hoping that they would be able to announce a formal start to peace talks as one tangible accomplishment to come out of the meetings.
But those hopes dimmed last week after Mr. Obamas special representative to the region George J. Mitchell returned to Washington after a fruitless week of shuttle diplomacy which yielded little by way of an agreement on freezing the construction of Jewish settlements and amid fresh signs of differences on the basis for peace negotiations.
The failure of Mr. Mitchell to nail down an agreement with Israel on freezing settlements which the administration views as vital for successful talks came coupled with the administrations failure so far to secure much support from the Arab world for Mr. Obamas endeavors on the Middle East peace front. The White House would like Arab leaders to make diplomatic gestures toward Israel which they believe would give Mr. Netanyahu the political cover he needs at home to make concessions to the Palestinians.
None of that so far has been forthcoming.
Mr. Obama said Tuesday that he has asked Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to return to Washington next week to go back to the drawing table to try to hammer out a deal that will at least get the talks to the starting gate.
He said that he has asked Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to report back to him by October on progress and he called it absolutely critical" that the two sides get peace talks restarted.
