Obama Says U.S. Commitment to Israel Security 'Ironclad', Vows Pressure on Iran
U.S. President Barack Obama vowed Sunday to "keep up pressure" on Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons and forcefully defended his call for an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on pre-1967 frontiers, suggesting critics had misrepresented him.
Outlining U.S. and U.N. sanctions imposed on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime, Obama said Iran is now "virtually cut off from large parts of the international financial system."
"We're going to keep up the pressure ... So let me be absolutely clear -- we remain committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons," he added to roaring applause from the audience at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC Policy Conference.
The United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany have engaged in on-again, off-again talks with Iran aimed at halting its uranium enrichment program, which Washington fears masks a drive to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charges and claims its program is peaceful.
Obama also pointed to Iranian "hypocrisy" in "claiming to support the rights of protesters while treating its own people with brutality."
He said Iran was funding, arming and otherwise supporting violent extremists.
"So we will continue to work to prevent these actions, and we will stand up to groups like Hizbullah, who exercise political assassination and seek to impose their will through rockets and car bombs," said Obama.
Hizbullah is blacklisted as a "terrorist" group by the United States.
The U.N. Security Council has adopted four sets of sanctions against Iran, the most recent in June last year, over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process that lies at the heart of Western concerns.
A panel of experts that monitors the sanctions said Iran was circumventing them but that its nuclear work had been impaired.
Addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama said delays in moving toward a two-state solution would undermine Israel's security.
"There was nothing particularly original in my proposal," Obama said.
"This basic framework for negotiations has long been the basis for discussions among the parties, including previous U.S. administrations," he said.
Obama called on Israel to accept a return to territorial lines in place before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, with mutual land swaps with Palestinians to frame a secure peace.
In a dramatic Oval Office appearance on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphatically rejected the call, saying it would make Israel militarily indefensible and uproot hundreds of thousands of settlers from the West Bank.
But, in an apparent reference to Netanyahu and other critics, Obama said his position has "been misrepresented several times," adding that mutually agreed swaps means that the parties would be negotiating "different" lines than those that preceded the 1967 war.
"It allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last forty-four years, including the new demographic realities on the ground and the needs of both sides," he said.
Brookings Institution analyst Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told AIPAC that Obama's remarks echoed the language of president George W. Bush's letter of 2004 allowing for Israel to absorb major settlement blocs.
"If there's a controversy, then, it's not based in substance," Obama said.
"What I did on Thursday was to say publicly what has long been acknowledged privately," he continued, adding there was no time to lose in achieving peace.
"The world is moving too fast. The extraordinary challenges facing Israel would only grow. Delay will undermine Israel's security and the peace that the Israeli people deserve."
His remarks on the controversy -- coming on the eve of Netanyahu's own speech to AIPAC -- received loud applause from the thousands of delegates who drowned out a few boos.
Analysts said Obama became the first president to specifically state that the 1967 borders should be the basis for peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, shut down over a settlements row last year.
U.S. officials had, however, privately been pushing the position for a while and the principle was close to the shape of a failed deal advanced by former president Bill Clinton at Camp David in 2000.
Obama also drew loud applause when he called on the Islamist movement Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist, reject violence and accept previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements.
Also well received was his promise to fight any efforts to isolate Israel at the United Nations, repeating that Palestinian efforts to win recognition as an independent state at the world body will fail.
He also sought to reassure Israel's supporter of general U.S. support for Israel's security, a traditional line from U.S. presidents.
"Even while we may at times disagree, as friends sometimes will, the bonds between the United States and Israel are unbreakable, and the commitment of the United States to the security of Israel is ironclad," Obama said to loud applause.
He also said Washington was going "beyond" regular military assistance to the Jewish state in order to help "maintain Israel's qualitative military edge."
Source: Agence France Presse
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