By Jeffrey Heller and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu bluntly told Barack Obama on Monday that he would never
compromise on Israel's security even as the U.S. president sought to
reassure him on Iran nuclear diplomacy and pressure him on Middle East
peace talks.
In a White House
meeting overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis, the two leaders avoided any
direct clash during a brief press appearance but were unable to paper
over differences on a pair of sensitive diplomatic drives that have
stoked tensions between them.
Obama assured Netanyahu of his
"absolute commitment" to preventing Iran from developing atomic weapons,
despite the Israeli leader's deep skepticism over U.S.-led efforts to
reach a final international deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program.
But, warning that time was running out, Obama also urged Netanyahu to
make "tough decisions" to help salvage a faltering U.S.-brokered peace
process aimed at reaching a framework agreement with the Palestinians
and extending talks beyond an April target date for an elusive final
accord.
"The Israeli people expect me to stand strong against criticism and pressure," Netanyahu told the president.
Obama and Netanyahu, who have had strained relations in the past,
showed no outright tension as they sat side-by-side in the Oval Office.
Both were cordial and businesslike. But their differences were clear,
and when the talks ended after nearly three hours there was no immediate
sign of progress.
Netanyahu arrived in Washington to a veiled
warning from Obama that it would be harder to protect Israel against
efforts to isolate it internationally if peace efforts failed.
The Israeli prime minister used their brief joint appearance to put the
onus on the Palestinians to advance prospects for peace and also to vow
to hold the line on what he sees as Israel's security imperative.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) meets with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Ova …
HISTORY LESSON
In his remarks, Netanyahu offered Obama
what was essentially a history lesson covering the last 20 years of
conflict with the Palestinians as well as what Israelis see as an
existential threat from Iran, arch-foe of the Jewish state.
"Iran
calls openly for Israel's destruction, so I'm sure you'll appreciate
that Israel cannot permit such a state to have the ability to make
atomic bombs to achieve that goal," Netanyahu said. "And I, as the prime
minister of Israel, will do whatever I must do to defend the Jewish
state."
Obama is seeking room for diplomacy with Iran, while
Netanyahu, who has stoked U.S. concern in the past with threats of
unilateral strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, has complained that
sanctions on Tehran are being eased prematurely.
The meeting with
Netanyahu marked a new direct foray into Middle East peacemaking by
Obama, whose first-term efforts ended in failure.
Secretary of
State John Kerry has been trying to persuade Netanyahu and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas to agree to a framework deal that would enable
land-for-peace negotiations to continue, even though there is widespread
skepticism inside and outside of the region about his chances for
success.
Abbas, who seeks Palestinian statehood, is due at the
White House on March 17. He has resisted Netanyahu's demand, repeated
during the Oval Office meeting, for the Palestinians to recognize Israel
as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
Netanyahu appeared to
be pushing back implicitly against Obama's warning in a Bloomberg View
interview of "international fallout" for Israel if peace efforts break
down and the building of Jewish settlements continues.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and U.S. President Barack Obama sit down to a mee …
Israelis, increasingly concerned about an anti-Israel boycott
movement, view such U.S. warnings as an attempt to squeeze out
concessions.
Possibly further complicating the talks, an Israeli
government report showed that Israeli construction starts of settler
homes had more than doubled last year.
Palestinians seek to
establish a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East
Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured those areas in the 1967 Middle
East war and in 2005, pulled out of the Gaza Strip, now run by Hamas
Islamists opposed to Abbas's peace efforts.
OBAMA URGES COMPROMISE
"Israel has been doing its part, and I regret to say that the
Palestinians haven't," Netanyahu said, an assertion he is likely to
repeat on Tuesday to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, a past podium
for some of his most strident speeches.
Obama commended Netanyahu
for his role in the talks that resumed in July but warned that "the
time frame that we have set up for completing these negotiations is
coming near."
"It's my belief that ultimately it is still
possible to create two states," he said. "But it's difficult and it
requires compromise on all sides."
Palestinians point to Israeli settlement-building in occupied West Bank territory as the main obstacle to peace.
Netanyahu told Obama that Jewish history taught Israelis that "the best way to guarantee peace is to be strong."
His remark harkened, but without the stridency, to an Oval Office visit
in 2011 when he famously lectured the U.S. president on the long
struggles of the Jewish people, as he sought to counter Obama's call to
base any peace agreement on borders that existed before the 1967 Middle
East war.
Ukraine has dominated Obama's agenda. "I know you've
got a few other pressing matters on your plate," Netanyahu joked to
Obama, who used his press appearance to warn Russian President Vladimir
Putin that Moscow faces international isolation for its military
intervention in Ukraine's Crimea region.
On Iran, Obama and Netanyahu gave no real sign of progress in bridging fundamental differences.
Netanyahu, whose country is widely believed to be the Middle East's
only nuclear-armed nation, has denounced as a "historic mistake" an
interim deal that world powers reached with Iran in November, under
which it agreed to curb sensitive nuclear activities in return for
limited sanctions relief.
He
has insists that any final deal must completely dismantle Tehran's
uranium enrichment centrifuges, a position that is at odds with Obama's
suggestion that Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, could
be allowed to enrich on a limited basis for civilian purposes.
On Netanyahu's visit to Congress, where pro-Israel sentiment runs
strong, House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor told him he backed
his demands to dismantle Iran's nuclear program and for Palestinians to
recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
(Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal, Roberta Rampton; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Tom Brown and Mohammad Zargham)
