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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, June 14, 2009. Netanyahu Sunday night called on the Palestinians to resume Middle East peace talks without preconditions and presented three conditions for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. [Pool-Baz Ratner/Xinhua]
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Meanwhile, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called for unity among Arab leaders, a day after Netanyahu endorsed, with conditions, a Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time.
"Arab leaders should be more united and preserve the spirit of resistance to face the Israeli stands regarding the peace process and the Palestinian refugee issue," Suleiman said.
He called on the international community to exert more pressure on the Israeli government to accept the Arab Peace Initiative, as he said Israel still has a will of military confrontation which can be proved in its offensives on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
On the Palestinian side, Palestinian National Authority (PNA) rejected Netanyahu's conditions for resuming peace negotiations.
"Netanyahu will not find any Palestinian to talk to under the conditions he imposed on the creation of the Palestinian statehood," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator.
He added that Netanyahu's speech was "a slap in the face" of President Barack Obama's plan to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On June 4, US President Barack Obama delivered a speech from Cairo University in Egypt, where he vowed to find a fair solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The administration of Obama had urged Netanyahu to accept the two-state solution and freeze the construction of settlements in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday said Netanyahu's speech was "racist and radical".
"This speech shows Netanyahu's racist and radical government and its platform, which aims at eliminating all Palestinian people's rights," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman on Sunday.
Further, Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement called on Arab states to withdraw the Arab Peace Initiative in response to Netanyahu's speech.
"The misleading Netanyahu speech should motivate the Arab regimes to cancel their initiative and stop being subjected to compromise," said the less influential group in a press release.
However, United States hailed Netanyahu's speech about the creation of a Palestinian state as "an important step forward."
"The president (Barack Obama) welcomes the important step forward in Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement when he commented Netanyahu's two-state speech.
"The president will continue working with all parties -- Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Arab states, and our Quartet partners --to see that they fulfill their obligations and responsibilities necessary to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a comprehensive regional peace," the White House statement said.
Earlier on Sunday, US special envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell concluded his latest swing through the Middle Eastin a renewed attempt to push forward the long-stalled peace process.
(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2009)
