Buenos Aires: US President Barack Obama is
"doing nothing right now" to restart the stalled
Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Palestinian president
Mahmud Abbas said in an interview published on Tuesday.
"I hope he'll take a more important role in the future,"
Abbas told the Argentine daily Clarin during a visit to Buenos
Aires.
The Palestinians "are waiting for the United States to
put pressure on Israel so it respects international law, so it
takes up the road map" towards peace, he said, according to
publication's Spanish translation.
"It can do two things: put pressure on the Israelis so
they reject settlements, and put pressure so they accept
withdrawing to the 1967 borders."
Yesterday, in talks with Abbas, Argentine President
Cristina Kirchner also said she wanted the United States to
"do more" to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
"We cannot ignore the role the United States has, by
virtue of their particular weight, in bringing Israel back to
the negotiating table," she told a joint news conference.
Peace talks have been on hold since the beginning of the
year and remain stalled over Israel's refusal to halt
settlement construction, which the Palestinians have set as a
precondition for negotiations.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 23:10