Barack Obama urges Mahmoud Abbas to ‘take risks’ for peace

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in White House, Washington, March 17, 2014.

US President Barack Obama told Mahmoud Abbas that the Palestinian leader and Israel’s politicians must be prepared to make tough decisions and take “risks” for peace.
Abbas arrived at the White House two weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that time was running short for a final deal and saying Israel could show it was serious by honouring a scheduled release of Palestinian prisoners this month.
Obama, personally supporting Secretary of State John Kerry’s exhaustive Middle East peace drive at a critical moment, is pressing both sides to accept a framework to carry negotiations past an end-of-April deadline. “As I said to Prime Minister Netanyahu when he was here just a few weeks ago, I believe that now is the time… to embrace this opportunity,” Obama said.
“It is very hard, very challenging. We are going to have to take some tough political decisions and risks if we’re able to move it forward.” Obama said that everyone understood the shape of an “elusive” peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, saying it would be based on 1967 lines with mutual land swaps.
Abbas sat beside Obama in the same Oval Office chair recently used by Netanyahu, when the Israeli leader complained Israel had done its part over decades of peace talks and the Palestinians hadn’t done theirs.
The white-haired Palestinian leader told Obama: “We don’t have any time to waste.” “Time is not on our side, especially given the very difficult situation that the Middle East is experiencing and the entire region is facing.” Abbas did not use a photo opportunity before the talks to directly address the Israeli government’s demand for the Palestinians to recognise Israel as a “Jewish” state in public. But he did say through a translator that the Palestinians had recognised Israel’s legitimacy in 1988 and in “1993 we recognised the state of Israel.”

Abbas-Mustan finally get Big B on board

Amitabh Bachchan

 

In a career spanning two decades, Abbas-Mustan, the filmmaking duo known for their brand of racy thrillers, have never worked with Amitabh Bachchan. But that's going to change with their next.

Mirror has learnt that the directors have convinced Big B to feature in their upcoming thriller, which will have an ensemble cast. While speculations are rife about them taking the Race franchise forward, the brothers' next will be a dark murder mystery, with Bachchan in the lead.


 Abhishek Bachchan walks out of Abbas-Mustan's next film
 

A source close to the development said, "Mr. Bachchan had several script narrations with Abbas-Mustan. He has really liked the premise and is figuring out his schedule to accommodate this film." When contacted, Abbas confirmed the news saying, "It's true, we met Mr. Bachchan and he found the script fantastic. Along with him, there will be four more actors - two male and two female leads. We'll be casting them soon."

When quizzed on Bachchan's role, Mustan revealed, "It's a positive character, he plays a man with several children. Then a murder draws him into an intriguing mystery." Will this film also mark the debut of Abbas' son Mustafa?

"We keep telling him that we are ready to launch him, but he says he doesn't want to start off with us. Mustafa wants to make his own mark without our support," Abbas said.