Speaking to an audience at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC Policy Conference, Obama warned that the Jewish state would face growing isolation without “a credible peace process.”
The U.S. president also vowed to “keep up pressure” on Tehran to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons, as he condemned its support for groups in the region, namely Hezbollah, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United States.
In a bid to alleviate concerns that his administration was veering in a pro-Palestinian direction, Obama told AIPAC that border lines must be subject to negotiated land swaps and said these principles reflected U.S. thinking dating to President Bill Clinton’s mediation efforts.
“If there’s a controversy, then it’s not based in substance,” Obama said in a well-received speech at a Washington convention center. “What I did Thursday was to say publicly what has long been acknowledged privately.
“I have done so because we cannot afford to wait another decade, or another two decades, or another three decades, to achieve peace.”
The event was eagerly anticipated after Obama outlined his vision for the changing Middle East at the State Department Thursday and then clashed in a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day later.
Outlining U.S. and U.N. sanctions imposed on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime, Obama said Iran is now “virtually cut off from large parts of the international financial system.”
“We’re going to keep up the pressure … So let me be absolutely clear – we remain committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” he added to roaring applause from the AIPAC audience.
Obama also pointed to Iranian “hypocrisy” in “claiming to support the rights of protesters while treating its own people with brutality.”
He said Iran was funding, arming and otherwise supporting violent extremists. “So we will continue to work to prevent these actions, and we will stand up to groups like Hezbollah, who exercise political assassination and seek to impose their will through rockets and car bombs,” said Obama.
The U.N. Security Council has adopted four sets of sanctions against Iran, the most recent in June last year, over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process that lies at the heart of Western concerns.
A panel of experts that monitors the sanctions said Iran was circumventing them but that its nuclear work had been impaired.
The speech came ahead of a weeklong trip for the president to Europe, where he will tend to old friends in the Western alliance and look to secure their help with the political upheaval across the Arab world and the Afghanistan conflict.Netanyahu said in a statement after Obama’s remarks that he supported the president’s desire to advance peace and resolved to work with him to find ways to renew the negotiations. “Peace is a vital need for us all,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader’s tone was far more reserved than last week, when he issued an impassioned rejection of the 1967 borders as “indefensible” and even appeared to publicly admonish Obama after their White House meeting. Netanyahu was to address the pro-Israel lobby Monday night and Congress Tuesday.
Obama did not retreat from his remarks on what it would take to reach a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
Repeating a large section of his Thursday speech, he said the result must come through negotiation, and that Israeli border security and protections from acts of terrorism must be ensured.
“By definition, it means that the parties themselves – Israelis and Palestinians – will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967,” Obama said. That was before Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and a half-million Israelis settled on war-won lands.
Obama flatly opposed a Palestinian drive to win U.N. recognition for an independent state, even without a peace deal with Israel. He did note increased international impatience with what he termed the “absence” of a peace process.
“For us to have leverage with the Palestinians, with the Arab states, and with the international community, the basis for negotiations has to hold out the prospect of success,” Obama said.
Palestinian reaction to Obama’s speech was mixed. Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat refused to address Obama’s opposition to Palestinian efforts at the United Nations. “I want to hear from Mr. Netanyahu,” he said, calling for the Israeli leader to hold peace talks according to Obama’s principles. “Before he says yes, it’s a waste of time to talk about a peace process.”
Hamas said it would not recognize the Israeli “occupation” and that it, too, rejected Obama’s reference to the 1967 borders.
“It is a mistake to consider the U.S. as an honest sponsor for the so-called peace process,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/May-23/Obama-defends-vision-raps-Hezbollah.ashx#ixzz1NC5YED4I
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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