Obama urges halt to 'drift' in peace talks

WASHINGTON // The US president Barack Obama is challenging Israelis and Palestinians to be fair brokers in the quest for Mideast peace. The plan for peace faces new trouble, but Mr Obama says he will do everything he can. "We can't continue with the drift, with the increased fear and resentment on both sides, the sense of hopelessness around the situation that we've seen for many years now," he said on Thursday, referring to the idea of Palestinians and Israelis living peacefully as neighbours. "We need to get this thing back on track." Mr Obama challenged Israel to stop settlement construction in the West Bank, yet earlier the same day, Israelis rejected that demand. Mr Obama pushed Palestinians for progress, too, including a direct call for the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to reduce anti-Israeli sentiment in schools and mosques. "I am confident that we can move this process forward," Mr Obama said after meeting with Mr Abbas at the White House. The president said that means both sides must "meet the obligations that they've already committed to" - an element of the peace effort that has proved elusive for years. Mr Abbas told reporters after the session with Mr Obama that no meetings with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu are on the horizon. He said there are no preconditions for such a meeting but "obligations" on Israel through the so-called road map for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr Abbas said he is meeting his commitments under the road map and that Israel should do the same. He cited continued settlement construction as a commitment Israel is not meeting. Israel rejected blunt US requests to freeze Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank, a territory that would make up the Palestinian state, along with the Gaza Strip, as part of a broader peace deal. In strong language, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said on Wednesday that Mr Obama wants a halt to all settlement construction, including "natural growth." Israel uses that term for new housing and other construction that it says will accommodate the growth of families already living in existing settlements. Israeli spokesman Mark Regev responded on Thursday by saying some construction would go on. "Normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue," he said, noting Israel has already agreed not to build new settlements and to remove some unauthorised settler outposts. Mr Regev said the fate of the settlements would be determined in peace negotiations with the Palestinians. With that as a backdrop, Mr Obama said part of Israel's obligations include "stopping settlements." But he also struck a hopeful tone. He said that he had pressed Mr Netanyahu on the settlement matter just last week at the White House and that the Israeli leader needs to work through the issue with his own government. "I think it's important not to assume the worst, but to assume the best," Mr Obama said. The president also pushed Palestinians to hold up their end, including increased security in the West Bank to give Israelis confidence in their safety. Mr Obama said he told Mr Abbas the Palestinians must find a way to halt the incitement of anti-Israeli sentiments that are sometimes expressed in schools, mosques and public arenas. "All those things are impediments to peace," Mr Obama said. Asked about his impression of the meeting with Mr Obama, Mr Abbas said: "It was a serious and open meeting and President Obama seems determined on what he has said to us and to Israeli prime minister Netanyahu about the necessity of implementing the road map, and we have agreed to continue our communications." Mr Obama, like predecessor George Bush, embraces a Mideast peace plan that calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The president refused to set a timetable for such a nation but also noted he has not been slow to get involved in meeting with both sides and pushing the international community for help. Mr Abbas is working to repackage a 2002 Saudi Arabian plan that called for Israel to give up land it has occupied since the 1967 war in exchange for normalised relations with Arab countries. Mr Abbas gave Mr Obama a document that would keep intact that requirement and also offer a way to monitor a required Israeli freeze on all settlement activity, a timetable for Israeli withdrawal and a realisation of a two-state solution. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Mr Obama affirmed to Mr Abbas that Israel has an obligation to freeze settlement expansions, including natural growth. The US and much of the world consider the settlements an obstacle to peace because they are built on captured land the Palestinians claim for a future state. But successive US administrations have done little to halt settlement activity. Israelis will be anxiously watching Mr Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo, where he will deliver a message to the Muslim world to try to repair relations that frayed badly under the Bush administration. Mr Obama will also visit Saudi Arabia before he goes to Egypt. * AP

*AP