Obama urges action to escape ME ‘rut’

USA: US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Middle East peace moves were in a “rut” as visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak pushed for swift final status talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Obama also praised Israel for curtailing new tenders for settlements in the occupied West Bank until early 2010, and called on Arab states and the Palestinians to join the Jewish state in making concessions to revive hopes of a lasting settlement.

Veteran Middle East power broker Mubarak was attending his first presidential summit in the United States in five years, following differences with the previous George W. Bush administration.

He argued that rows over issues like settlements and proposals for piecemeal Arab concessions to Israel were bogging down the process.

“We need to move to the final status solution and level,” Mubarak told reporters as he sat with Obama in the Oval Office.

“I have contacted the Israelis and they said ‘perhaps we can talk about a temporary solution,’ but I told them ‘No.’ I told them: ‘Forget about the temporary solution, forget about temporary borders.’

 AFP