Cairo pushes Obama on Mideast

Cairo pushes Obama on Mideast
By Daniel Dombey in Washington and Vita Bekker in Tel Aviv
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: August 19 2009 01:50 | Last updated: August 19 2009 01:50
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c53beb18-8c57-11de-b14f-00144feabdc0.html


Barack Obama, US president, meets his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak at the White House to discuss how to give impetus to the stalled Middle East peace process
Egypt on Tuesday stepped up pressure on Barack Obama, US president, to bring out his own initiative on the Arab-Israeli conflict, even as the government of Benjamin Netanyahu signalled a change of position on the central issue of settlements.

On a visit to the White House, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president, urged Mr Obama to present a blueprint of his own for Middle East peace, Egyptian officials said.

“We cannot afford wasting more time, because violence will increase,” Mr Mubarak said at a joint press appearance in the Oval Office.

Referring to what he said were Israeli proposals for an accommodation with the Palestinians, he dismissed what he called a “temporary solution” and “temporary borders”. He added: “We need to move to the final status solution.”

Highlighting what he said was “movement in the right direction”, Mr Obama said: “If all sides are willing to move off of the rut that we’re in currently, then I think there is an extraordinary opportunity to make real progress.”

He was speaking after the Israeli government said it had stopped granting permission for new housing projects in the occupied West Bank, in an effort to reduce tensions with Washington on settlement expansion.

An Israeli government official said: “Since the advent of the Netanyahu government [in March], no new housing tenders have been issued.”

The official confirmed earlier statements made by Ariel Atias, minister of housing, who told an Israeli radio station that the government was in a “waiting period” to try to reach an understanding with the US on settlements. He added that the move was not a formal settlement freeze.

Mr Obama has repeatedly urged Israel to freeze all settlement growth in occupied territory as a key step to prepare the way for the revival of stalled Middle East peace talks.

Mr Netanyahu, whose predominantly hardline coalition partners oppose curtailing construction, has so far resisted the demand, saying the “natural” growth of families in the settlements must be accommodated.

Soliman Awaad, a spokesman for Mr Mubarak, said the Egyptian president had quizzed Mr Obama on the timing for an initiative to break the larger deadlock over final status talks, warning him that Washington’s efforts to choreograph Arab concessions to Israel and a settlement freeze “won’t fly” because of Arab scepticism about Israeli moves.

“What is needed now is for America to declare a plan to achieve peace in the Middle East,” Mr Awaad said.

He added that Mr Obama had told Mr Mubarak in the Oval Office that a “final blueprint” would be unveiled in September, following a meeting between Mr Netanyahu and George Mitchell, the US president’s special envoy, next week. But the White House denied such a plan existed.

Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s spokesman, said that next month’s United Nations General Assembly would be “an important opportunity to continue to make progress on comprehensive Middle East peace”. But he added: “I do not know of any specific plan that the United States will present at that time.”