Obama backs key Palestinian demand over borders for future state

Mr Obama’s demand that a Palestinian state be based on 1967 borders – before the Six Day War in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza – was a significant shift in the US approach and seemed certain to anger Israel.

Israel has said an endorsement of the 1967 borders would prejudge negotiations, and Mr Obama took pains to show respect for Israel’s views ahead of his meetings tomorrow with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The comments came in Mr Obama’s most comprehensive response to date to the uprisings sweeping the Arab world. Speaking at the State Department, he called for the first time for the leader of Syria to embrace democracy or move aside.

As he addressed audiences abroad and at home, Mr Obama sought to leave no doubt that the US stands behind the protesters who have swelled from nation to nation across the Middle East and North Africa, while also trying to convince American viewers that US involvement in unstable countries halfway around the world is in their interest too.

Mr Obama said the United States had an historic opportunity and the responsibility to support the rights of people clamouring for freedoms, and he called for “a new chapter in American diplomacy”.

He hailed the killing of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and declared that bin Laden’s vision of destruction was fading even before US forces shot him dead.