Obama seeks new push for two-state solution

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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President Barack Obama toured a World War II concentration camp in Germany Friday after prodding the international community to redouble efforts toward separate Israeli and Palestinian states in hopes of resolving a conflict fueled by the Jewish nation's post-Holocaust creation.

The moment is now for us to act to achieve Mideast peace, the U.S. president declared in Dresden, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The U.S. can't force peace upon the parties, but America has at least created the space, the atmosphere, in which talks can restart," he was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.

The president also announced he was dispatching special envoy George J. Mitchell back to the region next week to follow up on his speech in Cairo a day earlier in which he called for both Israelis and Palestinians to make concessions in the standoff. Obama also said Israel must live up to commitments it made under the so-called "Road Map" peace outline to stop constructing settlements. He also said the Palestinians must control violence-inciting acts and statements.

Merkel, for her part, promised to cooperate on the long-sought goal. She said the two leaders discussed a time frame for a peace process but did not elaborate. "With the new American government and the president, there is a truly unique opportunity to revive this peace process or, let us put this very cautiously, this process of negotiations."

In Jerusalem however, an Israeli official said his country would not heed Obama's powerful appeal to halt all settlement activity on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state, adding: "Instead, Israel planned to take down 22 unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank in the coming weeks."

Touching on an issue that has strained the American-German relationship, Obama also said he didn't seek any commitments from Germany to take a dozen terrorism suspects when the U.S. closes its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. German officials have said most should be resettled in America.

Common solution

Merkel said her country is prepared to "constructively contribute" to U.S. closure efforts and said she was confident of eventually reaching a "common solution" on the prisoners' fate.

The two leaders spoke to reporters after meeting privately at a castle in the east Germany city that has bitter wartime memories. Starting on the night of Feb. 13, 1945, first British, then American bombers pounded the defenseless and largely non-strategic architectural gem, igniting a firestorm in which 25,000 people died - and in so doing, creating an enduring controversy.

Later, Obama became the first U.S. president to visit the Buchenwald concentration camp. An estimated 56,000 people, including some 11,000 Jews, perished there at the hands of Nazis. The stop was personal. A great-uncle helped liberate a nearby satellite camp, Ohrdruf, in early April 1945 just days before other U.S. Army units overran Buchenwald. "As part of the trip we thought it was very important for me to visit Buchenwald," Obama said, according to a report Agence France-Presse.