Obama urges support for Mideast talks

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President Barack Obama has urged fellow world leaders to support Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations currently under way. He was speaking at the 65th UN General Assembly at the organization’s New York headquarters. The week-long diplomatic marathon comes on the heels of a development summit which ended with a US pledge to revamp its foreign aid policy. The World’s Jason Margolis has more. Download MP3

• BBC video: Obama urges peace talks support
• Matthew Bell’s coverage of the peace talks

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Today President Barack Obama urged leaders at the United Nations to back his push for a Middle East peace agreement. He warned that inaction would lead to more bloodshed. Mr. Obama’s wide-ranging speech before the UN General Assembly touched on other topics as well such as the global economy and Iraq and Afghanistan. But Mideast peace was the main focus. As The World’s Jason Margolis reports.

JASON MARGOLIS:  The gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly is the principle diplomatic forum held each September, the ultimate international town hall. During his 32 minutes at the podium, President Obama chose to highlight the US-brokered resumption of face-to-face peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

BARACK OBAMA: Now I recognize many are pessimistic about this process. The cynics say that Israelis and Palestinians are too distrustful of each other, and too divided internally, to forge lasting peace. Rejectionists on both sides will try to disrupt the process, with bitter words and with bombs and with gunfire.

MARGOLIS: The president said he refused to accept that future. He said the responsibility to choose peace begins with Palestinian and Israeli leaders. But he also said to the room filled with diplomats that “each of us has a responsibility to do our part as well.” The president said friends of the Palestinians need to support the Palestinian Authority politically and financially. He also said they must stop trying to tear Israel down.

OBAMA: After 60 years in the community of nations, Israel’s existence must not be a subject for debate. Israel is a sovereign state, and the historic homeland of the Jewish people. It should be clear to all that efforts to chip away at Israel’s legitimacy will only be met by the unshakeable opposition of the United States.

STEWART PATRICK: The president is insisting that countries cannot be let off the hook. They cannot at the same time support statehood for Palestine and question Israel’s right to exist.

MARGOLIS: That’s Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at The Council on Foreign Relations. He says the president’s tough talk defending Israel was particularly directed at Iran, but also other Muslim nations. President Obama didn’t let Israel and its supporters off the hook either. He repeated his stance that Israel should continue its moratorium on building settlements in the West Bank. It was an important point to make says Nick Burns, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

NICK BURNS: That message was designed for Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, for the Israeli political establishment, for the Israeli public. But it’s also a sign to the Arab world, and to the Palestinians, that this president has been quite even-handed. He’s been a very balanced mediator between the two unlike some of his predecessors. And he clearly wants to retain the public support of the Palestinians and the Arab world as he wants to retain the support of the Israelis. This is a difficult balancing act.

MARGOLIS: The president also spoke about the Middle East in the context of Iran. Mr. Obama said Iran has failed to demonstrate peaceful intentions with its nuclear program. The president said there are consequences for that. Nick Burns says the president’s message to Tehran was effective.

BURNS:  First he sent a clear signal that he means business with sanctions, the sanctions are toughening on Iran, and they’re beginning to be felt in Iran. And secondly, he said very clearly that the road to negotiations is still open should the Iranians want to take that road, and let us all help that they do.

MARGOLIS: Contrary to the defiant posturing of Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Burns believes that Iranians do pay attention to what the American president says. For the World, I’m Jason Margolis.

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