"Obama reiterated that he and his administration will work in full partnership with President Abbas to achieve peace in the region," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator in peace talks with Israel.
Abbas was the first foreign leader Barack called . "This is my first phone call to a foreign leader and I'm making it only hours after I took office," Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina quoted Obama as telling Abbas.
In Jerusalem, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was not immediately aware whether Obama, who has pledged to pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts early into his administration, also had telephoned the Israeli leader.
Obama said last week that he has a team in place to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict immediately after taking office.
During his inauguration speech on Tuesday, President Obama pledged a new approach to the Muslim world.
"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," he said.
George J. Mitchell
People close to Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that George J. Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader and the chairman of a Middle East peace commission in 2001, was a leading candidate to be the Obama administration’s special envoy to the Middle East.
The appointment of Mr. Mitchell, a Lebanese American and a seasoned and well-regarded negotiator, would signal that President-elect Barack Obama was attaching a high priority to the Middle East and the current Gaza crisis from his first days in office, according to International observers
Photo: Barak Obama shown talking to Mahmud Abbas during a visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah in July 2008. Obama was sworn in yesterday as the first African-American president of the United States of America
president
Tags: Israel, Lebanese, Obama, Palestinians, source: Reuters, Ya Libnan
