ISRAELI PRIME minister Binyamin Netanyahu has told president Barack Obama that he wants to start peace negotiations with the Palestinians immediately but he stopped short of endorsing a two-state solution.
During more than three hours of talks at the White House, the president reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to a two-state solution and told Mr Netanyahu that Israel must halt all settlement building in the West Bank.
Mr Obama made clear that he wants the two sides to move quickly towards substantive negotiations, describing a peace settlement as a US national security goal.
“It is, I believe, in the interests not only of the Palestinians but also the Israelis and the United States and the international community to achieve a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians are living side by side in peace and security,” he said.
“We have seen progress stalled on this front, and I suggested to the prime minister that he has a historic opportunity to get a serious movement on this issue during his tenure. That means that all the parties involved have to take seriously obligations that they have previously agreed to. I think that there is no reason why we should not seize this opportunity and this moment.” Mr Netanyahu declined to embrace the goal of a two-state solution, suggesting that terminology was less important than the achievement of peace, security and prosperity.
“We don’t want to govern the Palestinians. We want them to govern themselves,” he said.
“We want to live in peace with them. We want them to govern themselves absent a handful of powers that could endanger the state of Israel.” Mr Netanyahu said that any agreement is contingent on Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and Israel’s right to defend its security effectively.
Mr Netanyahu stressed the importance to Israel of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, praising Mr Obama for his declaration that “no option is off the table” if Tehran does not respond to diplomatic pressure.
The prime minister added that Israel’s anxiety about Iran’s nuclear ambitions was shared by neighbouring Arab states.
“It could give the nuclear umbrella to terrorists or worse, it could actually give nuclear weapons to terrorists, I believe it would put all of us in great peril,” he said.
Mr Obama said he expects his policy of engagement with Iran to bear fruit and he ruled out setting a formal deadline for negotiations, but he added that it should be clear by the end of this year if Tehran is serious about reaching an agreement on the nuclear issue. The president insisted, however, that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians could not wait for a resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue. The president was unusually blunt in telling Mr Netanyahu publicly that all settlement activity must stop and that the humanitarian situation in Gaza must be addressed.
“If the people of Gaza have no hope, if they can’t even get food and water, if the border closures are so tight that it’s impossible for reconstruction and humanitarian efforts to take place, then that is not going to be a recipe for Israel’s long-term security or for a constructive peace track to move forward,” Mr Obama said.
The president acknowledged that achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians and with neighbouring Arab countries would be difficult but he expressed confidence in the skills of his special envoy to the region, former senator George Mitchell.
“I’m very confident that, as somebody who was involved in equally delicate negotiations in Northern Ireland, he’s somebody who recognises that if you apply patience and determination, and you keep your eye on the long-term goals that the prime minister articulated, which is a wide-ranging peace – not a grudging peace, not a transitory peace, but a wide-ranging regional peace, that we can make – make great progress,” he said.
An aide to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas praised Mr Obama’s reaffirmation of Washington’s commitment to a two-state solution but criticised Mr Netanyahu’s comments.
The US president will host Mr Abbas at the White House later this month, within days of a meeting Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.