In an address marking the feast of Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan, the all-powerful Khamenei said the Palestinian cause was the "number one issue in the world of Islam" as the crowd chanted "Death to Israel! Death to America!"

"The Zionist regime, with utmost impudence, is continuing its cruelty on the oppressed Palestinian people, while in Washington there is a peace meeting. Peace with whom?" Khamenei said in a speech at Tehran university, broadcast live on state television.

"They (US) want to cover up the Palestinian issue and the crimes committed there with this meeting which is dubbed a peace meeting. They are just standing and watching with disregard and then they set up a peace meeting. What peace? Peace between who and who?"

Khamenei's remarks were his first reaction to renewed direct peace talks in the United States on September 2. Other top officials in Iran, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have already dismissed the initiative.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met in Washington for their first round of direct talks after a 20-month hiatus.

They later agreed to meet twice a month in a bid to thrash out a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within a year.

Iran, which supports the Islamist Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip, is implacably opposed to the peace talks, saying Abbas lacks legitimacy to represent all Palestinians.

In his speech Khamenei blasted Israel, saying "the Zionist occupier was standing against the Palestinians and insisting that they accept Judaisation."

"They want to impose this on our beloved Quds (Jerusalem) and our beloved land of the Palestinians. This is our main issue. We hope God will help Muslim nations and Muslim governments to do their duty against this very bitter move."

Khamenei praised the Palestinians, saying they were stronger now than 20 or 30 years ago.

"The Palestinian people, year by year and despite all the pressure, are standing firm. There is no doubt the Palestinians can cut the hands off the aggressor and remove this forged regime from their land," he said.

Animosity between the Islamic republic and the Jewish state has worsened under the presidency of Ahmadinejad, who has dismissed the Holocaust as a "myth" and said Israel is doomed to disappear.

Israel, believed to be sole nuclear-armed power in the Middle East, has never ruled out taking military action against Iran to thwart its controversial atomic programme of uranium enrichment.

earlier related report
Obama presses Israel to extend settlement freeze
Washington (AFP) Sept 10, 2010 - US President Barack Obama called Friday on Israel to extend a freeze on settlements as he pledged a never-say-die approach to the new Middle East peace talks, calling the effort "a risk worth taking."

Saying last week's launch of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations "exceeded lots of people's expectations," Obama looked to the September 26 expiration of the partial freeze on new Jewish housing in the West Bank as a key hurdle.

"A major bone of contention during the course of this month is going to be the potential lapse of the settlement moratorium," Obama told a White House press conference.

He said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House last week that, "given so far the talks are moving forward in a constructive way, it makes sense to extend that moratorium."

Obama said he also told Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas -- who was in Washington last week for the negotiations launched by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- to give Netanyahu room to maneuver.

He urged Abbas to "show the Israeli public that you are serious and constructive in these talks so that the politics for prime minister Netanyahu, if he were to extend the settlement moratorium, would be a little bit easier."

Israeli officials have indicated that they will not extend the freeze as is, but the Palestinians have warned that they would break off the new talks if settlement building continues on occupied land.

Obama sounded cautiously optimistic as Clinton was due in Egypt and Israel next week for round two of the first direct talks to be held since December 2008 when Israel launched a three-week war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"I remain hopeful but this is going to be tough," Obama said.

The president said Netanyahu and Abbas came to the White House talks "with a sense of purpose and seriousness and cordiality that frankly exceeded lots of people's expectations."

He recalled that the two leaders last week affirmed the goal of creating two states living side-by-side and agreed to hold negotiations roughly every two weeks.

But he added: "There are enormous hurdles between now and our end point, and they're going to be a whole bunch of folks in the region who want to undermine these negotiations."

Last week, Hamas launched two attacks against settlers in the West Bank, killing four Israelis and wounding two others.

Asked if he personally is willing to step in if the talks grind to a halt, Obama said his administration will encourage and facilitate the negotiations, even though the parties must ultimately decide on peace.

He said the two sides "need each other," with the Palestinians seeking a state of their own and Israel wanting to preserve its character as both a Jewish and democratic state.

He said he understood it was "a risk for us to promote" the new peace talks but "it's a risk worth taking because the alternative is a status quo that is unsustainable."

Refusing to accept failure, Obama pledged: "If these talks break down, we're going to keep on trying."

Many analysts say deep US engagement is vital to the success of the negotiations, adding that such talks have failed in past when US administrations were reluctant to intervene.

Obama said a goal he has set for himself and his team is to help Netanyahu and Abbas establish mutual trust and "start thinking about how can they help the other succeed as opposed to" finding ways to sabotage each other.

Obama said a peace settlement offers the potential to "change the strategic landscape in the Middle East" in a way that helps Washington deal with Iran's suspect nuclear program and its alleged support for militant groups.

"We're not just doing this to feel good. We're doing it because it will help secure America as well," the president said.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News