President Barack Obama toured a World War II concentration camp on Friday after prodding the international community to redouble efforts toward separate Israeli and Palestinian states in hopes of resolving a conflict fueled by the Jewish nation's post-Holocaust creation.
"The moment is now for us to act" to achieve Mideast peace, the new US president declared earlier in Dresden, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"The United States can't force peace upon the parties," but America has "at least created the space, the atmosphere, in which talks can restart," he said.
The president also announced he was dispatching special envoy George J Mitchell back to the region next week to follow up on his speech in Cairo a day earlier in which he called for both Israelis and Palestinians to make concessions in the standoff.
Fresh from visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Obama said that while regional and worldwide powers must help achieve peace, responsibility ultimately falls to Israelis and Palestinians to reach an accord.
He said Israel must live up to commitments it made under the so-called "Road Map" peace outline to stop constructing settlements, adding: "I recognize the very difficult politics in Israel of getting that done."
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