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国际英语新闻:Obama urges Israelis, Palestinians to "move forward"

2009-09-23来源:和谐英语

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to "move forward" in their negotiations.

"It is past time to talk about starting negotiations," Obama told reporters after separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and before their three-way meeting in New York. "It is time to move forward."

    "It is time to show the flexibility and common sense and sense of compromise that's necessary to achieve our goals," Obama said. "We have to find a way forward."

U.S. President Barack Obama watches Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) shake hands during a trilateral meeting in New York September 22, 2009.

He urged efforts to "summon the will to break the deadlock that has trapped generations of Israelis and Palestinians in an endless cycle of conflict and suffering."

    "We cannot continue the same pattern of taking tentative steps forward and then stepping back," Obama said. "Success depends on all sides acting with a sense of urgency."

    Obama said U.S. envoy George Mitchell and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators next week.

    "I've asked the prime minister and the president to continue these intensive discussions by sending their teams back to Washington next week. And I've asked the secretary of state to report to me on the status of these negotiations in mid-October," Obama said.

    Obama pledged to "work as hard as necessary" on Israel-Palestinian negotiations. "It is absolutely critical that we get this issue resolved."

    "It's not just critical for the Israelis and the Palestinians; it's critical for the world," he said. "It is in the interests of the United States."

    Neither Netanyahu nor Abbas spoke at the press encounter, but they shook hands with each other after Obama's brief remarks.

    The three-way meeting took place on the sidelines of an annual general debate of the United Nations General Assembly, which starts on Wednesday, a summit on climate change on Tuesday and a UN Security Council meeting on nuclear disarmament, which will be chaired by Obama.

    The U.S. holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council in September.

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) sits with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a trilateral meeting at President Obama's hotel in New York September 22, 2009.

Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks after a break of more than six years at an international conference in Annapolis, the United States, in November 2007, but the talks made little progress before being suspended amid the Gaza war in December 2008.

    The suspension of the Israeli-Palestinian talks was attributed partly to Netanyahu's refusal to heed Washington's repeated demands that Israel halt all settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land.

    Mitchell visited Jerusalem and Ramallah last week, but no agreement was reached between the U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials. 

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks on during a trilateral meeting at President Obama's hotel in New York September 22, 2009.