Obama calls on world to aid Mideast peace

Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS

Grasping for peace, President Barack Obama on Thursday challenged a pessimistic world to overcome decades of shattered promises and help Israelis and Palestinians close a historic deal within a year. “This time will be different,” he declared, offering a now-or- never choice between Mideast stability and perpetual bloodshed.

To a hushed audience of global leaders, Obama made Mideast peace the dominant theme of his yearly address to the U.N. General Assembly, a sign of the fragile state of the latest talks and the importance he attaches to their success. Nearly every other topic of his international agenda was shoved to the margins, save for a vigorous call for support of human rights.

In a message to allies and foes alike, Obama devoted the final passage of his speech to a need for people to live freely, and he warned that “we will call out those who suppress ideas.” While he spoke of tyranny by the Taliban and in North Korea, he did not single out allies that the U.S. has accused of repressing their people, such as Russia and China.

With fresh Mideast peace talks seemingly on the brink of collapse, Obama took on skeptics directly. He challenged Israelis and Palestinians to make compromises, exhorted supporters on both sides to show real backing instead of empty talk and painted a grim picture of what will happen if the current effort is consigned to the long list of failed attempts.

“If an agreement is not reached, Palestinians will never know the pride and dignity that comes with their own state,” Obama said. “Israelis will never know the certainty and security that comes with sovereign and stable neighbors. ... More blood will be shed. This Holy Land will remain a symbol of our differences instead of our common humanity.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed an afternoon session of the assembly. At one point he said that some in the world have speculated that Americans were actually behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks and that they were staged in an attempt to assure Israel’s survival. At that, the U.S. delegation walked out.