US President Barack Obama on Wednesday pleaded with Israelis and Palestinians not to let slip a fleeting opportunity for peace, as he launched a landmark Middle East diplomatic initiative.
"This moment of opportunity may not soon come again," Obama warned after holding separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan.
"They cannot afford to let it slip away. Now is the time for leaders of courage and vision to deliver the peace that their people deserve."
Obama promised to put the "full weight" of the United States behind the effort to forge peace between Israelis and Palestinians in direct talks between the two sides that begin at the State Department on Thursday.
"If both sides do not commit to these talks in earnest, then the long-standing conflict will only continue to fester and consume another generation. This we simply cannot allow.
"We know there will be moments that test our resolve. We know that extremists and enemies of peace will do everything in their power to destroy this effort," Obama said.
Despite his vow to shepherd the peace talks, Obama warned however that the United States could not simply impose a solution to the decades-long conflict.
"Ultimately the United States cannot impose a solution and we cannot want it more than the parties themselves," Obama said.
The US leader, who is investing substantial political and diplomatic capital in the effort, also said Israeli and Palestinian leaders had said they believed a deal could be struck within his one-year timeline.
He said that the talks would aim to resolve all of the most testing "final status" issues between the two sides.
"The goal is a settlement, negotiated between the parties that ends the occupation which began in 1967 and results in the emergence of an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with a Jewish state of Israel and its other neighbours."
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