Obama calls for Middle East focus

President Barack Obama has challenged the international community to confront the causes of Middle East turmoil, saying the world faces “a choice between the forces that would drive us apart and the hopes we hold in common.”

His speech to an annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly was his last before the November election, and campaign politics shadowed his words as he also spoke forcefully on Iran’s nuclear programme, the peace prospects between Israelis and Palestinians and the tensions that can come with freedom of speech.