Obama 'doing nothing'
2009-11-24 21:32
Buenos Aires - US President Barack Obama is "doing nothing right now" to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Palestinian president Mahmoud 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 US 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."
On Monday, in talks with Abbas, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner also said she wanted the US to "do more" to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
"We cannot ignore the role the US 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.
Obama and his administration have repeatedly called on the Israeli government to halt settlement construction in accordance with the road map peace plan.
Last week, Obama criticised Israel's announcement that it would launch new construction in annexed east Jerusalem.
Abbas's two-day visit to Buenos Aires was part of a tour of several South American nations. It came a week after Israeli President Shimon Peres visited Argentina and Brazil.
After Argentina, he was to continue to Chile, Paraguay and Venezuela.