US president says Iran has right to peaceful nuclear energy

         In a widely anticipated speech from Cairo Thursday, US President Barack Obama vowed continued support for Israel, but was uncompromising in his demand for the establishment of a Palestinian state, can called for a stop to settlements. He also said that Iran had the right to peaceful nuclear energy, but added that the US would not hesitate to be tough in upcoming talks with the Islamic Republic. Obama called for an end to the "cycle of suspicion and discord" between Americans and Muslims. The President said the US does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements "on the West Bank and outskirts of Jerusalem." "Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist," he said. "The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people." "At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine," he said. "It is time for these settlements to stop." On the issue of Iran Obama said the US will proceed with courage, rectitude and resolve. Obama acknowledged the United States' role in overthrowing the democratically elected Iranian government during the last century. He said it was going to be difficult to overcome decades of mistrust. But he said the US was willing to move forward with mutual respect and without preconditions. Obama said that approach would prevent a nuclear arms race in the region. He said no single nation should decide which countries have nuclear weapons. Obama called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims" and said together, they could confront violent extremism across the globe and advance the timeless search for peace in the Middle East. "This cycle of suspicion and discord must end," Obama said. He said the US seeks a new beginning with the Muslim world but "change cannot happen overnight." In a gesture, Obama conceded at the beginning of his remarks that tension "has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations." Obama said some people in the United States view Islam as hostile to Western countries, but that this was not the case, despite fear and mistrust. "And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear," he said. At the same time, he said the same principle must apply in reverse. "Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire." He treaded lightly on one issue that President George W. Bush had made a centerpiece of his second term - the spread of democracy. Obama said he has a commitment to governments "that reflect the will of the people." And yet, he said, "No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other." At times, there was an echo of Obama's campaign mantra of change in his remarks, and he said many are afraid it cannot occur. "There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward," he said. Upon arrival in Cairo on Thursday morning, Obama told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the United States is committed to working in partnership with the countries in the Middle East. The two leaders also spoke about the long-running conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and how to bring peace in the Middle East. Obama thanked Mubarak for his hospitality, and praised him as a man who has decades of experience on a range of issues. The US president arrived in Egypt after spending the night at Saudi King Abdullah's horse farm in the desert outside Riyadh, hours before he was set to deliver a long-promised speech to an audience at Cairo University. Aides said the address would blend hopeful words about mutual understanding with carefully chosen language on Iraq, Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian standoff, plus blunt talk about the need for Muslims to embrace democracy, women's rights and economic opportunity. The president's brief stay in Cairo also was to include a visit to the Sultan Hassan mosque, a 600-year-old center of Islamic worship and study, and a tour of the Great Pyramids of Giza on the capital's outskirts. Aides said the schedule also would afford Obama time to talk to Egyptian journalists and young people. Even though he's been promising this speech since the election campaign, in recent days Obama has sought to downplay it. "One speech is not going to solve all the problems in the Middle East," he told a French interviewer. "Expectations should be somewhat modest." Lest any miss Obama's outreach, the tech-savvy White House planned a communications onslaught: a live Webcast of the speech on the White House site; remarks translated into 13 languages; a special State Department site where users could sign up to get - and answer - speech highlights; and plans to push excerpts out to social networking giants MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. Denis McDonough, a deputy national security adviser, said Obama's address would contain "a good deal of truth-telling about our range of issues and concerns, as well as our common and mutual interests across the board." Though the speech was co-sponsored by al-Azhar University, which has taught science and Quranic scripture here for nearly a millennium, the actual venue was the more modern and secular Cairo University. The lectern was set up in the domed main auditorium on a stage dominated by a picture of Mubarak. The university's alumni are among the Arab world's most famous - and notorious. They include the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfuz. Saddam Hussein studied law in the '60s but did not graduate. And al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri earned a medical degree. (14,16)