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,” Obama told reporters as he sat down for the three-way meeting, which was held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. “It is past time to talk about starting negotiations. It is time to move forward.”
Obama said his envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, would meet with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators next week, adding that he had asked his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to report back to him on the status of the talks in October.
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Image by Doug Mills/NYT
