Washington, 19 June-(ANA)-President Barack Obama's "reassertion" of U.S. leadership in the Middle East offers a rare opportunity to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said.
In an editorial in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, Mubarak said Obama was willing to take a lead in achieving peace and the Arab world would reciprocate.
"A historic settlement is within reach, one that would give the Palestinians their state and freedom from occupation while granting Israel recognition and security to live in peace," wrote Mubarak.
"Egypt stands ready to seize that moment, and I am confident that the Arab world will do the same," he added.
The Bush administration waited until its final years in office to make a concerted effort on Israeli-Palestinian peace and was criticized by many Arabs for doing too little, too late.
Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell has traveled four times to the region this year in a bid to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that were cut off following Israel's invasion of Hamas-run Gaza last December.
Earlier this week, Mitchell was optimistic preparations for full-blown talks would be done soon although one stumbling block has been a dispute over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.(ANA)
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