NEW YORK: US President Barack Obama said Tuesday final status talks on the creation of a Palestinian state “must begin soon” after bringing Israeli and Palestinian leaders together to discuss stalled peace moves.
“Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations,” Obama said before the three-way summit in New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
“It is time to move forward. It is time to show the flexibility and common sense and sense of compromise that’s necessary to achieve our goals,” Obama said.
“Permanent status negotiations must begin and begin soon.”
Obama announced that he had asked both sides to send negotiators back to Washington next week for more talks on relaunching the dialogue process, under the auspices of US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
Before the talks, billed as a visible symbol of his firm personal commitment to peacemaking, Obama called on both sides to show “urgency” and to break a pattern of taking small steps forward and then stepping back.
“My message to these two leaders is clear. Despite all the obstacles, despite all the history, despite all the mistrust, we have to find a way forward. We have to summon the will to break the deadlock that has trapped generations of Israelis and Palestinians in an endless cycle of conflict and suffering.”
Netanyahu was meeting Abbas for the first time since taking office in March, after an intense US diplomatic effort failed to yield an Israeli settlement freeze or concessions by Arab states toward the Jewish state.
Before the three-way meeting, Obama held separate talks with Netanyahu and Abbas and their delegations. US, Israeli and Palestinian officials had taken pains to stress before the summit that wide gaps between the sides were unlikely to be bridged in a single meeting.
But the White House says the fact the meeting took place at all was a sign of progress.
Tuesday’s talks were less a discussion about the key final status issues including Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the borders of an eventual Palestinian state or the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, and more a bid to bring initial contacts closer.
