Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques receives phone call from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

Obama describes Saudi Arabia as strategic partner

President Mubarak briefed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on meeting with Obama

Israel confused by U.S. stance on settlements, cabinet debacle expected

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has received a phone call from Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

During the call, bilateral relations as well as regional and international affairs were discussed.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama Thursday ratcheted up what might be America's toughest bargaining position with Israel in a generation, demanding anew that Israel stop expanding its settlements in the disputed West Bank as a key step toward making peace with its Arab neighbors.

Obama made the demand after a White House meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, building on unusually blunt language the day before from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"Each party has obligations," Obama said of the so-called Road Map to Peace, to which Israel is a party. "On the Israeli side, those obligations include stopping settlements."

He said he made that point to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when they met earlier this month, noting that the conversation "only took place last week" and that Netanyahu must work through domestic politics, but added: "We don't have a moment to lose."

Even before Obama sat down with Abbas, however, Israel's government sent the message that it will continue construction in the settlements. "Normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue," government spokesman Mark Regev said Thursday, adding that normal life included new construction.

Obama also urged the Palestinians to do their part by ensuring security in the West Bank and curbing anti- Israel rhetoric in schools. However, his renewed push on Israel — coming hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government signaled that it will keep building in the settlements — suggested an ambitious and perhaps high-risk strategy that could either jump-start peace talks or leave Israel angry and the U.S. looking weak.

"What we're seeing from the Obama administration is an uncharacteristically tough policy on settlements without a corresponding detailed strategy to justify it. It looks like a significant fight with the Israelis," said Aaron David Miller, a veteran of Arab-Israeli peace efforts in administrations of both parties and now a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

"They've essentially issued an ultimatum to Israel. It's a game of chicken, an Obama-Netanyahu game of chicken." Clinton signaled the raised stakes when she said Wednesday that Obama wanted new construction in the settlements stopped and rejected Israel's insistence that it needed to allow for such things as "natural growth."

"He wants to see a stop to settlements," Clinton said. "Not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly."

"Her comments," Miller said, "were about as tough and as shrill as I've heard from any senior American official on this issue" since then-Secretary of State James Baker told Congress in 1991, "Everybody over there should know, the telephone number is 1-202-456-1414. When you're serious about peace, call us." Baker and President George H.W. Bush tried to press Israel to stop building settlements by urging Congress to suspend loan guarantees to Israel , but then they backed down.

Abbas came with a five-page proposal that centered on a longstanding goal of requiring Israel to withdraw from Arab land it occupied after the Six-Day War in 1967 in exchange for a guarantee of peace with its Arab neighbors.

It also called for a freeze on Israeli activity in the settlements in the West Bank , a timetable for withdrawal from them and a two-state solution.

About 300,000 Israelis now live in the settlements, on land the Palestinians hope to reclaim as part of any peace deal.

Obama's meeting with Abbas was part of a growing effort to jump-start Middle East peace negotiations as he prepares for a major speech to the Islamic world that he'll deliver in Cairo on June 4.

Obama met Jordan's King Abdullah II on April 21 , and Netanyahu on May 18 . Obama also had planned a White House meeting this week with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak , but Mubarak canceled after a death in the family. Obama will meet with Mubarak next week during a visit to Egypt , and also will meet with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in Riyadh.

A key question heading into next week is whether Obama can get Arab states to offer some concession that might prompt Netanyahu to agree to freeze the West Bank settlements. He could, for example, get them to offer travel visas to Israelis, or to allow the use of their airspace by commercial Israeli flights.

It's noteworthy that Obama this week announced that he'd go to Saudi Arabia early next week for a private dinner with King Abdullah , en route to Cairo.

"If what Obama is trying to do is get states like the Saudis to actually do things now, not only will he have achieved something pretty significant, he'll make it almost impossible for the Israelis to say no," Miller said. "No Israeli prime minister can afford to mismanage Israel's most important relationship, especially at a time when the Iranians are closer to nuclear power."

On the other hand, the Riyadh-based Al-Jazeera said a great attention has been given to the forthcoming tour of US President Barack Obama to the Arab region during which he will meet with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.

The daily noted that his tour of the Arab region was preceded by Obama's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Head of the Palestinian authority Abbas.

"Moreover Obama's tour follows highly significant statements of American officials including the US President himself about the importance of establishing a Palestinian state."

On several occasions, Obama has reiterated the importance of resolving the Palestinian problem on the basis of the two states formula as well as the importance of stopping construction of new settlements in the Palestinian territories, said the daily.

Obama has made it clear to Netanyahu that establishing the Palestinian state will serve the interests of Israel because that is the sole way for realizing security and peace, said the daily.

The paper noted that Obama believes that the Jewish settlements should be stopped for paving the way for establishing the Palestinian state, adding that this fact will be clarified to Obama during his visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the most important countries in the region working for realizing peace.

The Jeddah-based Al-Madina under the title of 'The Kingdom and challenges of terrorism', quoted Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, the second deputy premier and interior minister, as saying that the security authorities have foiled 200 terror operations, and affirmed that this fact provides a clear evidence for the great challenges facing the Kingdom as regards fighting terrorism.

"Moreover, this fact also provides a clear proof for the success attained by the security authorities in aborting terror plots against the country and citizens.

The paper urged the families, Ulema (Muslim scholars) and academicians to cooperate with the security authorities in combating terrorism and said "We are in need of an integrated strategic plan for uprooting terrorism."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected Monday U.S. calls to freeze Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

"We can't freeze life in the settlements," Netanyahu said, according to a senior official in the premier's office.

"There are reasonable demands and unreasonable demands. The fate of the settlements will be decided in a final status agreement," he was quoted as telling parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

He stressed while the government wouldn't halt expansion within existing settlements, it won't build new settlements and will dismantle outposts which Israel considers unlawful.

"On the issue of construction within settlements we still haven't reached an understanding with the Americans," Netanyahu said.

At least four Palestinians were wounded Monday in attacks by Jewish settlers angered at the possibility the state may dismantle outposts in the West Bank, medics and witnesses said.

Netanyahu also said his government was willing to resume peace talks with the Palestinians immediately "not only on economic and security issues but on diplomatic questions."

He said Israel was ready to hold the talks without preconditions.

"I'm ready to give them all the sovereign powers to rule themselves except for those that will put our security in danger," he said, adding: "We are not ready for them to have an army or to be able make alliances with Iran.

"Israel should be recognized as the state of the Jewish people at the end of the process," he said.

He also expressed support for U.S. calls to boost peace hopes by normalizing relations between Arab states and Israel, saying: "The Arab states can take steps towards normalization with Israel by forging trade ties and diplomatic ties and holding meetings with Israelis."

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak began a round of meetings with top U.S. officials in a bid to head off an increasingly sharp dispute between the United States and Israel over the expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory.

Israeli officials have been stunned by the demands of top Obama administration officials that Israel halt settlement growth throughout the West Bank, and Barak was said to be carrying compromise proposals focusing mainly on dismantling unauthorized settlement outposts. He met in New York with special envoy George S. Mitchell, and will meet with Vice President Biden, national security adviser James L. Jones and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in the coming days.

Barak, the leader of the Labor Party, is a former Israeli prime minister who during the Clinton administration nearly achieved a peace deal with Palestinians. But he is part of a government that is skeptical of efforts to create a Palestinian state and has resolutely rejected President Obama's demands on settlements.

The Bush administration, under a secret agreement with Israeli governments, spoke publicly against settlement growth but tacitly accepted natural population growth in settlements that Israel expected to keep in a peace deal with the Palestinians. The Obama administration has refused to accept such arrangements and has instead demanded a complete freeze.

Obama said in an interview with National Public Radio: "A two-state solution . . . is going to require that each side -- the Israelis and Palestinians -- meet their obligations. . . . I've said very clearly to the Israelis, both privately and publicly, that a freeze on settlements, including natural growth, is part of those obligations."

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rejected Obama's demand in a meeting with his country's parliament [World Digest, Page A7].

The Obama administration has also indicated it does not consider itself bound to the terms of a 2004 letter that President George W. Bush gave then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saying Israel could expect to keep major settlements in a peace deal. Late Friday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly issued a statement pointedly declining to reaffirm that the letter carried over to the current administration. He instead reiterated that there must be a "stop to settlements."

A meeting in London last week between Mitchell and Israeli envoys went poorly, Israeli sources said, with Mitchell rejecting compromise proposals floated by the Israelis. "Our position hasn't changed one bit, and they know that," said a senior U.S. official after Mitchell's meeting with Barak. "We want them to stop settlement activity."

A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said one factor in the administration's determination is that satellite photos indicated that Israel had not held to the private bargain it had made with the Bush administration.

"In Israel, we are a bit alarmed at the statements coming out," one Israeli official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities.

"It is a bit too much too soon." He wondered if the comments were intended to ease the way for Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on Thursday, since Israeli settlements are frequently denounced by Arab governments.

Ghaith al-Omari, a former Palestinian negotiator who is advocacy director for the American Task Force on Palestine, said the Obama administration's unity and toughness on the issue have been impressive. "The president has put his own prestige on the line," Omari said. "The thing to watch is whether he will apply a similar amount of pressure on the Arabs" on such issues as financial support for the Palestinian Authority.

In focusing on Israeli settlements, Obama has identified an Achilles' heel in the strong support for Israel in the U.S. Congress, where there is increasing angst among lawmakers that settlements are a hindrance to peace efforts.

There are more than 120 settlements in the occupied West Bank that are legal under Israeli law but not internationally.

The Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel ratified in 1951, forbids an occupying power from transferring "parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies," but Israel disputes that this provision applies to settlements.

Israel seized the West Bank and other territories in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel in 2003 committed itself to removing 26 unauthorized outposts. Israeli and Palestinian organizations say dozens of other settlements are illegal, or include structures that should be taken down.