Obama calls for Mid-East urgency

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in New York.

US President Barack Obama has called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to act with "urgency" and restart peace talks, reports BBC.
Mr Obama spoke after hosting the first meeting between leaders from both sides since he took office.
US Middle-East envoy George Mitchell later said the US did not see any issue as a precondition for talks.
The US has been pressuring Israel to comply with Palestinian demands for all building in settlements in the occupied West Bank to end before talks restart.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas shook hands in front of the cameras during what was their first encounter since Mr Netanyahu came to office in March.
Mr Obama - who has defined peace between Israel and the Palestinians as a "national interest" of the US - first met each leader separately in what he described as "frank but productive" talks, before hosting the trilateral meeting.
"Permanent status negotiations must begin and begin soon," he said. "It is past time to talk about starting negotiations. It is time to move forward."
In a news conference later, Mr Mitchell said the meeting had been "cordial" and at times "blunt", but that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas had "recognised the urgency of moving promptly".
He said that while no agreement had yet been reached on the issue of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, there were no preconditions for talks to restart.
Mr Obama had hoped this would be a mini-summit that meant something. Instead, if it is remembered, it looks as if it will be as another photo opportunity.
The two sides are very far apart, and the Obama administration's Middle East policy is struggling to find a way ahead.
Sorting out the Israel-Palestinian conflict matters because it has a unique capacity to export trouble, to the Middle East and to the wider world.
That is why Mr Obama identified it as a top American priority when he took office - and why, despite the difficulties, he cannot give up on it.
"Our objective all along has been to re-launch meaningful final status negotiations in a context that offers the prospect of success," Mr Mitchell said.
"We have substantially and significantly progressed in reducing the number of issues on which there is disagreement and we hope to complete that process in the near future."
Israel has repeatedly rejected US and Palestinian demands for a total freeze on settlement building.
Speaking after the talks, Mr Netanyahu said there had been a "general agreement that the peace process should resume as soon as possible with no preconditions".
Mr Obama said Israel had discussed important steps to "restrain" settlement activity, in what some observers noted to be a change in language from his previous calls for Israel to "halt" or "freeze" all building work.
But Mr Abbas reiterated his demand that all construction in settlements be frozen.