Obama: No shortcuts to Mideast peace

US president Barack Obama has declared there could be no shortcut to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as he sought to head off a looming diplomatic crisis for the Middle East and US policy there.

“Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations - if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now,” the president told UN delegates.

“Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side. Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians – not us – who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them.”

But in the speech before the UN General Assembly, Mr Obama stopped short of directly calling on the Palestinians to drop their plan to seek statehood recognition from the UN Security Council. US officials were working furiously behind the scenes to persuade the Palestinians. With the limits of US influence on the moribund peace process never more clear, Mr Obama had no new demands for the Israelis, either, beyond saying that both sides deserved their own state and security.

“Peace depends upon compromise among peoples who must live together long after our speeches are over, and our votes have been counted,” he said.

“That is the path to a Palestinian state.”

The push by the Palestinians threatens to isolate Israel even further, and divide the US from allies in the Arab world who support the statehood resolution.

After the speech, which was friendly to Israel’s position and did not criticise the Israelis, Mr Obama went into a meeting with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. There he affirmed the US commitment to Israel’s security.

At the same time, US officials are conceding that they probably cannot prevent Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas from moving forward with a request to the UN Security Council for full Palestinian membership. The Obama administration has pledged to veto any Palestinian statehood bid, arguing that only direct peace negotiations, not a UN vote, would allow the Palestinians to achieve the benefits of statehood.

Obama’s remarks on Israel and the Palestinians came in a speech that also swept up the convulsions of what Obama called “a remarkable year.” He talked about the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship in Libya, the killing of al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, and the emergence of South Sudan as the world’s newest nation.

“Something is happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way they will be,” Mr Obama said. “The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open. Dictators are on notice. Technology is putting power in the hands of the people.”

The president talked of hope for the future, and a striving for freedom in “a time of transformation.”

In an appearance with Mr Netanyahu before their private meeting, Mr Obama reiterated his call for direct peace talks as the only solution, saying “actions in the United Nations will mean neither statehood or self-determination for the Palestinians.”

Mr Netanyahu condemned the Palestinian move.

“Their attempt to shortcut this process, not negotiate a peace, that attempt to get a membership, state membership from the United Nations, will not succeed,” he said.

“I think the Palestinians want to achieve a state in the international community,” he said, “but they’re not prepared yet to give peace to Israel in return.”

Meanwhile, French president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a timetable for Israeli-Palestinian peace with resumed talks in one month, agreement on borders and security in six months and a final deal in one year.

Fulfilling his promise to try to sidetrack the Palestinian bid for UN membership, Mr Sarkozy told the General Assembly that after 60 years of failure its time to change tactics.

He said efforts to reach an accord must include a broader range of players, including Arab nations who have been sidelined.

Mr Sarkozy said talks were “doomed to failure” if either side sets preconditions.