Weimar states support to Obama on Mideast

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/21/c_13886162.htm

WARSAW, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The Weimar Triangle grouping France, Germany and Poland supports U.S. President Barack Obama's suggestion to form a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders, the Weimar countries' foreign ministers announced Friday

On Thursday Obama said lasting peace in the Mideast called for "two states for two nations" and suggested that "the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on those of 1967".

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called Obama's statement "courageous" and a step towards resolving the Mideast problem.

"We support Obama's courageous words on the need for prompt action to resolve the Mideastern conflict. Barack Obama has done what Europe urged him to do and now he's done it we express our support," Sikorski said in Bydgoszcz, north Poland at a press conference with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

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1. Obama wants Cameron to back Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/21/obama-cameron-pre-1967-palestinian-borders?intcmp=239

Barack Obama visits the UK
The then senator Barack Obama talks with Tory leader David Cameron at Westminster in 2008. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Barack Obama will seek a joint Middle East agreement with David Cameron, insisting that a Palestinian state should be based on pre-1967 borders – a proposal rejected by Israel's prime minister as "unrealistic" and "indefensible".

The issue will be raised in private talks between the two men during the state visit by Obama and his wife to London, only the third by a US president in 100 years. Afghanistan, Libya, relations with Pakistan and the global economy – as well as the vacancy for the top job at the IMF – will also make up the agenda.

Despite the outright rejection by the Israeli premier, Binyamin Netanyahu, of a Palestinian state based on the borders that existed before the Six Day War, when Israel captured and occupied the West Bank and Gaza, Obama has already secured the political backing of the United Nations, European Union and Russia who, with America, are collectively known as the "quartet".

Signalling his determination to keep up pressure on Israel, Obama will be looking to enlist the public support of the UK prime minister. The aim is, in large part, to persuade the Palestinian leadership not to go to the UN in September seeking symbolic backing for an independent state.