U.S. President Obama visits Saudi Arabia June 3, discusses peace with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques

Obama took up solution with Abu Mazen, urges Palestinian statehood, halt to settlements

Clinton calls for fully stopping settlement building

Israel insists on settlements, Lieberman rules out return to 1967 borders

Indictment bill expected against Lieberman by Israel police for alleged corruption

U.S. President Barack Obama will meet Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in Riyadh next week to seek his support over the nuclear standoff with Iran and reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Obama will visit Riyadh on June 3 in a surprise addition to his scheduled three-day trip to Egypt, Germany and France, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, is a staunch U.S. ally in the region and potentially a key player in the drive for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which Obama has declared a top foreign policy priority.

The Obama administration has embraced the 2002 Arab peace initiative, a proposal authored by Saudi Arabia that offered Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees.

Gibbs dismissed the idea the Saudi stop was added to persuade Arab states to make conciliatory gestures to Israel.

"The president believes it's an important opportunity to discuss important business, like Middle East peace, but it's not born out of anything specific," he said.

Gibbs last week scotched speculation that Obama would use his much-anticipated speech to Muslims, which he is due to deliver in Egypt on June 4, to unveil a new Middle East peace initiative.

Obama has held talks with Jordan's King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks as part of efforts to jumpstart stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace moves and will meet Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Thursday.

The visit to Saudi Arabia comes as Obama is seeking to build an alliance of moderate Muslim nations to put pressure on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, which Washington fears is a cover to build a nuclear bomb.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called in March for Arabs to agree on how to tackle Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for electricity generation.

Obama's administration has been at pains to reassure Saudi Arabia that Washington's efforts to reach out diplomatically to Iran will not affect bilateral relations.

Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the leader of mainstream Sunni Islam, fears the growing regional power of non-Arab, Shiite Iran, which backs Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamist factions such as Hamas and has considerable influence in neighboring Iraq.

The United States has raised the idea of sending Yemeni terrorism detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, which Obama has said he will close by next January, to Saudi Arabia, as Riyadh has a program to rehabilitate militants.

Saudi Arabia is among the United States' top 15 trading partners. Last year, two-way trade was $67.3 billion, which equaled about 2 percent of total U.S. exports and imports.

Saudi Arabia exported $54.8 billion worth of oil and a few other products to the United States in 2008 and imported $12.5 billion of U.S. goods.

Obama on Thursday ratcheted up pressure on Israel to freeze settlements as he sought to reassure visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of U.S. support for Palestinian statehood.

Faced with an Israeli rebuff of Washington's latest appeal to halt settlement building, Obama held talks with Abbas 10 days after hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains at odds with the U.S. administration over peacemaking strategy.

Seeking to revive stalled peace efforts, Obama made clear he would continue pushing Netanyahu to impose a total freeze on Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and embrace the goal of Palestinian statehood.

"We can't continue the drift ... We need to get this thing back on track," Obama told reporters with Abbas, a Western-backed moderate weakened by Hamas Islamists' control of the Gaza Strip, seated at his side in the Oval Office.

Obama stressed that Israel's obligations under a 2003 Middle East peace "road map" include "stopping settlements ... and making sure that there is a viable Palestinian state."

He said Palestinians had to do more to strengthen their security forces and reduce anti-Israel "incitement" he said was sometimes spread in schools and mosques.

In his first Washington visit since Obama took office in January, Abbas had been expected to make his case for a tougher U.S. approach toward Netanyahu, who heads a new right-leaning Israeli coalition with pro-settler parties at its core.

Netanyahu's government on Thursday spurned U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's blunt assertion that all settlement activity must stop, including the "natural growth" of existing enclaves that Netanyahu has vowed to continue.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev responded by reaffirming Netanyahu's intention to allow some further construction to accommodate the expansion of settler families.

Even as policy differences have exposed a rare U.S.-Israeli rift, it remains unclear how hard Obama is willing to push the Jewish state to make concessions when his administration has yet to complete its Middle East strategy.

Obama sees engagement in Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking as crucial to repairing America's image in the Muslim world and drawing moderate Arab states into a united front against Iran.

Netanyahu's refusal to endorse a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, long the cornerstone of U.S. policy, has added a new obstacle to Obama's diplomatic efforts.

In Thursday's talks, Obama also sought to shore up Abbas, who governs only in the West Bank while Hamas holds sway in Gaza. "We are fully committed to all of our obligations under the road map," Abbas said.

Palestinians contend that expansion of settlements, deemed illegal by the World Court, are aimed at denying them a viable state. Israel says the Palestinian Authority has not done enough to rein in militant violence.

Abbas' visit could be a preview of what Obama can expect next week when he sees Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo and then delivers a speech to the Muslim world.

Muslims will be looking for signs of how Obama will tackle the Arab-Israeli standoff. His predecessor, George W. Bush, was criticized for neglecting the decades-old conflict and most Muslims believed his policies were biased in favor of Israel.

Obama said he would talk about his ideas for Israeli-Palestinian peace in the June 4 address but brushed aside speculation that he would unveil a new peace initiative.

"It is a critical factor in the minds of many Arabs throughout the region and beyond the region," he said.

Obama signaled, however, that he hopes to work toward a broader peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Abbas has ruled out restarting peace talks until Israel commits to Palestinian statehood and a settlement freeze.

Netanyahu has said he is ready to resume negotiations immediately but wants to exclude tough territorial issues.

Abbas said on Thursday there could be "no progress" unless final-status issues were discussed.

Further underscoring the difficult path ahead, Israeli troops killed a fugitive leader of Hamas' military wing in the West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.

A group of extremist Jewish settler rabbis called on Israeli soldiers on Thursday to refuse to obey orders to tear down illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank.

"The Holy Torah prohibits taking part in expelling Jews from our sacred land," the extremist rabbis said in a statement. "We call on soldiers and police to refuse to obey any expulsion orders."

Israel considers settlement outposts illegal as they were built without state authorization, and committed to dismantling them under the 2003 "roadmap" peace plan, but has so far failed to do.

But the international community considers all Jewish settlements illegal because they are built on Palestinian land, illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.

Hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed to remove the outposts, hinting the move was aimed at getting Washington's support to bomb Iran.

His call has sparked anger among his largely right-wing government that opposes removing any illegal settlements from the Palestinian West Bank.

More than 280,000 Jewish settlers currently live in settlements dotted throughout the Palestinian West Bank, which the international community considers illegal.

Extremely vocal and often violent groups of settlers live there because of a fervent belief that the Jewish people have a God-given, biblical-era right to the land, and are determined to ethnically cleanse the indigenous Palestinian population from their own land.

Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Strip.

The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza's sole border crossing that bypasses Israel, rarely opens as Egypt is under immense US and Israeli pressure to keep the crossing shut.

Fatah has little administrative say in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and has no power in Arab east Jerusalem, both of which were illegally occupied by Israel in 1967.

Israel also currently occupies the Lebanese Shebaa Farms and the Syrian Golan Heights.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Israel in unusually blunt terms Wednesday to completely halt settlements on land that Palestinians claim as part of a future state of their own.

In remarks to reporters at the State Department, Clinton said President Barack Obama had made clear last week during talks at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that stopping settlements is a key part of moving toward a deal establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"He wants to see a stop to settlements, not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions," Clinton said, referring in the last case to population growth on existing Israeli settlements in the West Bank from births and from allowances for adult offspring of settlers to buy homes near their parents.

"We think it is in the best interests (of the peace process) that settlement expansion cease," Clinton added, with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit at her side.

"That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly. ... And we intend to press that point."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is putting settlements at the center of his talks with Obama at the White House on Thursday, and he has said he won't resume peace talks without a freeze. Clinton was having dinner Wednesday with Abbas.

Obama has made clear that he supports the creation of a Palestinian state, and in remarks last week he noted that under a previous arrangement known as the "roadmap," which dates to the Bush administration, the Israelis agreed to halt West Bank settlements, along with certain steps by the Palestinians.

"Settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward," Obama said. "That's a difficult issue. I recognize that, but it's an important one and it has to be addressed."

The U.S. considers Israel's 121 settlements to be obstacles to peace, since they are built on territory claimed by the Palestinians. Netanyahu sees it differently, raising concerns of a looming rift with Washington.

Netanyahu says he is willing to resume peace talks immediately but has not said he supports the creation of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu also says existing Israeli settlements should continue to expand to accommodate "natural growth" in their populations. He also has ruled out ceding sovereignty in east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state. Israel captured the area in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it.

Clinton was more explicit in her comments about freezing settlements than her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, who said last Nov. 7 on a visit to the West Bank: "Settlement activity, both actions and announcements, is damaging for the atmosphere of negotiations. And the party's actions should be encouraging confidence, not undermining it. And no party should take steps that could prejudice the outcome of negotiations."

In his joint appearance with Clinton at the State Department on Wednesday, Abul-Gheit was asked by a reporter whether the Obama administration differs from the Bush administration in its approach to the issue of human rights in Egypt.

Abul-Gheit said Obama administration officials express their concern but also listen. "And that is very important to listen and to understand where you come from" and to explain U.S. reasoning, he added. "I think they are very much different than the Bush administration. I wouldn't characterize by that as good or bad, but there are differences, in attitude at least."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad welcomed on Thursday the policy of dialogue with his country initiated by his US counterpart Barack Obama.

Assad said he "appreciates that President Obama has adopted dialogue as the way to deal with difficult issues," a reference to years of sour relations with former president George W. Bush.

He was speaking during a meeting with visiting US Congressman Tim Walz and Senator Ted Kaufman, both members of Obama's Democratic party, the official Sana news agency reported.

Assad spoke of the "need to work to lift the obstacles that are hampering Syrian-American relations."

Ties between Washington and Damascus became strained after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the assassination of Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri in 2005 that was blamed on Syria. Damascus denies any involvement.

Washington recalled its ambassador in February 2005 following Hariri's murder.

Obama's new top Middle East envoy, Jeffrey Feltman, visited Syria in March in what was the first high-level US trip in four years. He returned earlier this month for further meetings, describing them as constructive and vowing to pursue dialogue.

Other congressional delegations have also visited Syria. Syria and key US-ally Israel engaged in indirect Turkish-sponsored peace talks last year following an eight-year hiatus, but they were suspended after Israel's war on the Gaza Strip in December-January.

Assad said in March that Syria could hold direct peace talks with Israel if the United States acted as an arbitrator.

The United States accuses Syria and its non-Arab ally Iran of giving material support to the Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah in their conflicts with Israel.

It has also charged that Syria turned a blind eye to Islamist militants entering Iraq through its border.

Meanwhile, hard-line Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday ruled out a return to Israel's borders of before the 1967 war, saying it would not end the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"A return to the borders of '67 today, as we are being pressured to do, would not end the conflict, would not guarantee peace or security," Lieberman told reporters ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting.

"It would simply move the conflict to within the '67 borders," he said, referring to Israel.

His comments came amid a discussion of dismantling settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank during the first cabinet meeting since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US President Barack Obama in Washington last week.

Police on Thursday questioned Lieberman over graft suspicions for the fifth time since he took office at the start of April, a spokesman said.

Hardliner Lieberman was quizzed for than five hours by investigators from the fraud department, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

"He was warned that anything he says could be held against him and he answered the questions of the investigators who suspect him of corruption, fraud, money laundering, breach of trust and interfering with the running of the inquiry," Rosenfeld said.

A source close to the inquiry said the questioning could be the last before possible charges are laid against the minister.

According to media reports, Lieberman, head of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, received "very large sums of money from abroad" to finance his election campaign.

The funds were allegedly channeled through fictitious companies and various bank accounts.

In Amman on Friday, at least 15 Jordanian lawmakers urged the government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel in protest against debate in the Israeli parliament over regarding Jordan as an "alternative homeland" for the Palestinians.

"The voting on the proposal by the Israeli Knesset proves that the Zionist mentality of the ruling politicians in Israel does not believe in peace and has no respect for the peace treaties and UN resolution," the pro-government National Democratic Bloc at the lower house of parliament said in a statement.

The group, which includes 15 deputies, considered last week's discussion in Israel's Knesset "a violation" of the peace treaty, which Jordan concluded with Israel in 1994.

The group said Jordan's response should be the "dismissal of the Israeli ambassador and withdrawal of the Jordanian envoy" from the Jewish state.

The proposal depicting "two states for two peoples on the two banks of the River Jordan" was put on the Knesset's agenda by deputy Arieh Elad from the far-right National Union/National Religious Party.

According to the Israeli media, the parliament voted to refer the suggestion to one of its committees for further review.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh summoned Israeli's ambassador in Amman earlier this week and handed him a strongly- worded protest that "categorically rejected" the Knesset move.

Judeh reiterated Jordan's stance envisaging the creation of an independent Palestinian state on all territories which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War, including East Jerusalem, under the two-state track which is supported by the world's leading powers, including the United States and the European Union.

On the other hand, the 2009 Amnesty International Report highlights the fact that the world is in the middle of a human rights crisis. We are sitting on a social, political and economic time-bomb that will explode if human rights concerns are not addressed.

Billions of people are suffering from insecurity, injustice and indignity around the world and while many aspects of this crisis pre-date the economic 'downturn', it is clear that the global financial situation is making the human rights crisis far worse.

More people have been driven into poverty and placed at increased risk of human rights violations. In Africa, the food crisis, a hallmark of 2008, had a disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups. In Asia, millions of people have swelled the ranks of those already living in poverty, as the cost of food, fuel and other commodities increased dramatically in 2008.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the financial crisis and rising food prices affected those already living in or close to poverty, whilst in Europe, several states required interventions from the International Monetary Fund to support their economies. Across the region, the gap between rich and poor remained vast.

It is also clear that recession has fuelled even greater repression, as protests stemming from poverty, economic disparities or a lack of justice are brutally suppressed.