(Adds Erekat quote, updates with Israeli reaction) RAMALLAH, West Bank, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world on Thursday was a "good start" towards a new U.S. policy in the Middle East, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. "His call for stopping settlement and for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and his reference to the suffering of Palestinians ... is a clear message to Israel that a just peace is built on the foundations of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," said spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah. "President Obama's speech is a good start and an important step towards a new American policy," he said. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator in peace talks with Israel, said the speech "reinforced the international consensus that exists today in support of the two-state solution, and its crucial importance to achieving a comprehensive peace in the region." The Western-backed Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority, which has held sway only in the West Bank since Hamas Islamists took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. Israel said it shared Obama's hopes for Middle East peace but Israel's security interests remained paramount. "Israel is committed to peace and will do all it can to expand the circle of peace while considering its national interests, first and foremost being security," a statement issued by the Israeli government said. Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said Obama's speech represented no change in U.S. policy. "Speaking about a policy of pursuing a war against extremism and working towards two states for peoples on Palestinian lands is no different from the policy of his predecessor George W. Bush," Taha said. (Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Joseph Nasr; writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; editing by Andrew Roche)
U.S. President Barack Obama places his hand on his chest as the U.S. national anthem is being played during an arrival ceremony at the presidential palace in Cairo June 4, 2009. ...
Israel
