Nobel Peace Prize winner urges Obama to focus on Middle East

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Nobel Peace Prize winner urges Obama to focus on Middle East
Posted: 08:39 AM ET
OSLO, Norway (CNN) — Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari Wednesday
called on U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to “give high priority to the
Middle East conflict in his first year in office.”

“All crises, including the one in the Middle East, can be solved,” the
former Finnish president said in his Nobel acceptance speech, even as he
admitted it was “the most challenging peace-building project ahead of us.”

“We cannot go on, year after year, simply pretending to do something to
help the situation in the Middle East. We must also get results,” he said as he
received the prize for his efforts to resolve conflicts from Kosovo to
Indonesia and Namibia.

The international community also had to put its weight behind the
project, he added, saying its credibility was at stake.

“Peace is a question of will. Wars and conflicts are not inevitable,” he
said, arguing that they are caused by people who have something to gain from
them. “All conflicts can be settled.”

Ahtisaari was modest about the role of mediators in ending conflicts,
saying only the warring parties themselves could stop bloodshed.

“The only people that can make peace are the parties to the conflict,” he
said.