While this was their first White House meeting in more than a year, Obama said the number of times he’s talked with the Israeli leader is “testament to the extraordinary bond” between their nations.
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Another topic of discussion at the meeting is the stalemate concerning trying to find a solution for Israeli-Palestinian peace and how to achieve a two-state resolution between the two countries, but this is not expected to be solved before Obama leaves office in 2016, say officials.
Senior administration officials last week said they did not foresee an agreement and perhaps no negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority for the rest of Obama’s presidency and that Obama would press Netanyahu for ways to show that he remained committed to the two-state plan. He also said that any Palestinian state must be demilitarized and recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.
Obama insisted at the start of the meeting that Israel’s security is one of his “top foreign policy priorities” as US president.
“Sometime in the following two years” of the 2016 USA presidential elections, Israel wants to use the weapons it will receive from the USA to target the nuclear “sites where Iran is developing nuclear capacities for peaceful usage”, he noted.
The President added that the two will also talk about the ongoing violence in Israel and the West Bank.
The US President said on Monday they would discuss implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, which Mr Netanyahu lobbied the US Congress to stop.
Netanyahu and his government bitterly opposed the July Vienna agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of debilitating sanctions. “It’s no secret that the prime minister and I have had a strong disagreement on this narrow issue”, Obama said.
Talking to reporters ahead of their Oval office meeting, Obama said he and Netanyahu would have an opportunity to discuss how they can blunt the activities of Islamic State (IS), Hezbollah, other organisations in the region that carry out terrorist attacks.
Netanayhu, in turn, related that is it “tremendously important” for the USA and Israel to continue to work together.
A close associate said on Monday that Netanyahu planned to present a package of “gestures” to the Palestinians in the areas of employment, communication, water and construction.
Netanyahu has said he’s ready to move beyond the fight over the nuclear deal, and it’s clear many Democrats are eager to return to Israel’s good graces.
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017-c-22-(Mark Smith, AP White House correspondent)-“Jerusalem’s holy sites”-AP White House Correspondent Mark Smith reports one thing that won’t be on the table is a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal”. The bulk of the meeting between the two leaders focused on a renewal of the U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) governing the extension of American military aid.
