Obama Calls for Peace Talks Without Conditions
Obama called on Palestinians to begin talks with Israel despite settlement activity; Iraq is on edge; and it's unclear if a Kurdish initiative and Netanyahu’s apology represent new trends in Turkish foreign policy.
Worth the Wait?
President Barack Obama, who said in Cairo on June 4, 2009, “it is time for these settlements to stop,” made his first presidential stop in Ramallah with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at this side, and made clear that talks between Israel and the Palestinians should not be conditioned on a pause in settlement activity:
“The core issue right now is, how do we get sovereignty for the Palestinian people, and how do we assure security for the Israeli people? And that's the essence of this negotiation. And that's not to say settlements are not important. It is to say that if we solve those two problems, the settlement problem will be solved. So I don't want to put the cart before the horse.”
While Obama took Israel by storm with his charm, many Palestinians were left with mostly disappointment.
