Obama, Netanyahu show solidarity on Iran

JERUSALEM (AP) — Seeking a fresh start to a strained relationship, President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday demonstrated solidarity on the key issues that have stirred tensions between them. The U.S. president vowed he would do "what is necessary" to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, while Netanyahu reaffirmed that his newly formed government seeks a two-state solution to Israel's decades-long dispute with the Palestinians.

Obama, in Israel for the first time in his presidency, also pledged to investigate reports that Syria had used chemical weapons for the first time in its two-year civil war. And he sternly warned Syrian leader Bashar Assad that use of such weapons would be a "game-changer," one that could potentially draw the U.S. military into the conflict for the first time.

"The Assad regime must understand that they will be held accountable for the use of chemical weapons or their transfer to terrorists," Obama said, standing alongside Netanyahu at a nighttime news conference.

Expectations were low for a breakthrough during Obama's visit on any of the major issues roiling the region. Instead, the president was focused on reassuring anxious Israelis that he is committed to their security, and on resetting his rocky relationship with Netanyahu. The two leaders have been at odds over Israeli settlements and Iran's disputed nuclear programs, and Netanyahu famously lectured Obama in front of the media in the Oval Office on Israel's right to defend himself.

Compared with past encounters, there was a noticeable lack of uneasiness Wednesday, the first time the two leaders have met publicly after both survived elections that will leave them stuck with each other for the foreseeable future. They traded jokes throughout a day of side-by-side appearances. And they repeatedly referred to each other by their first names, Obama calling his Israeli counterpart by his nickname, "Bibi."

On Iran in particular, the two leaders sought to show they were united in their desire to prevent the Islamic republic from developing what Obama called "the world's worst weapons."

Although preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is a priority of both countries, Netanyahu and Obama have differed on precisely how to achieve that goal. Israel repeatedly has threatened to take military action should Iran appear to be on the verge of obtaining a bomb, while the U.S. has pushed for more time to allow diplomacy and economic penalties to run their course.

Obama said he continues to prefer a diplomatic solution and sees time to achieve it. Whether that works, he said, will depend on whether Iran's leaders "seize that opportunity."

Although Obama did not promise that the United States would act militarily against Iran if Israel decided that must be done, he offered an explicit endorsement for Israel to take whatever unilateral measures it deems necessary to guard against the threat.

"Each country has to make its own decisions when it comes to the awesome decision to engage in any kind of military action, and Israel is differently situated than the United States," he said. "I would not expect that the prime minister would make a decision about his country's security and defer that to any another country any more than the United States would defer our decisions about what was important for our national security."

Netanyahu strongly backed Obama's efforts, saying he was "absolutely convinced" the U.S. is determined to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

"I appreciate the fact that the president has reaffirmed, more than any other president, Israel's right and duty to defend itself by itself against any threat," he said.

The Israeli leader also said that he and Obama agree that it would take Iran about a year to manufacture a nuclear weapon. Obama said there is "not a lot of light, a lot of daylight" between the two leaders in intelligence assessments about Iran.

The two leaders also spoke firmly about the need to pursue a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, an effort that was stymied during Obama's first term. The president, who arrived in Israel without a clear pathway for jumpstarting talks, acknowledged that in recent years, "we haven't gone forward, we haven't seen the kind of progress that we would like to see."

Netanyahu, for his part, said he was willing to set aside preconditions in future talks with the Palestinians, adding that it was time to "turn a page in our relations."

But they avoided tackling any of the intractable issues that have derailed the peace process, including Israeli settlement building and the status of Jerusalem. Obama promised to talk about peace efforts more expansively Thursday during a speech to Israeli youth.

He also was making a quick trip to the West Bank Thursday to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Obama planned to visit a youth center in Ramallah before heading back to Jerusalem to deliver a speech and attend a formal dinner with Peres.

He will also travel to Jordan later in the week, a stop aimed at shoring up government reforms by the important U.S. ally and pledging American support in dealing with the 450,000 Syrian refugees that have flooded over the border.

On another troubling issue in the Syria fighting, Obama said the U.S. is investigating whether chemical weapons have been used there. Both the Assad government and Syrian rebels have accused each other of using chemical weapons in an attack on Tuesday.

"Once you let that genie out of the bottle, then you are looking potentially at even more horrific scenes than we have already seen in Syria," Obama said. "And the international community has to act on that information."

Obama was greeted warmly upon his arrival in Israel Wednesday following an overnight flight from Washington. Netanyahu and Israeli President Shimon Peres met him at the steps of Air Force One as U.S. and Israeli flags waved on a breezy, sun-splashed afternoon.

During an elaborate welcome ceremony at Tel Aviv's airport, the Israeli leaders lavished praise on Obama, with Netanyahu calling the U.S. president his "cherished guest" and Peres saying he was a "historic friend of Israel." Obama responded in kind, saying he and his counterparts "share a vision of Israel at peace with its neighbors."

Seeking to underscore U.S. military cooperation with Israel, Obama viewed an Iron Dome battery that was transported to the airport for his arrival. The U.S. has invested more than $275 million into the missile defense system and plans to spend another $211 million on it this year. U.S. and Israeli officials credit the Iron Dome with preventing numerous rocket attacks from neighboring Palestinian territories.

Obama also announced Wednesday that the U.S. and Israel would start talks soon on a new, 10-year security cooperation package to replace one that expires in 2017.

While Israel warmly greeted Obama, Palestinians held several small protests. In Gaza, demonstrators burned Obama posters and U.S. flags, accusing the U.S. of being unfairly biased toward Israel. In the West Bank, about 200 activists erected tents in an area just outside Jerusalem to draw attention to Israel's policy of settlement building.

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Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

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Netanyahu faces rocky future in new coalition

JERUSALEM (AP) — Forced to rely on the support of two fast-rising rivals in his new governing coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now faces a reshaped and rocky landscape that could spell trouble ahead: An unwanted culture war with the country's ultra-Orthodox minority as well as pressure to make peace overtures to the Palestinians.

After weeks of difficult negotiations, Netanyahu, who barely hung onto his job, was forced to cede significant power to his new partners, liberal former TV anchorman Yair Lapid and his unlikely ally, pro-settlement hard-liner Naftali Bennett.

Both men make no secret that they want to be prime minister one day, and each can bring down the government at will.

This new constellation is expected to force the cautious Netanyahu, who presided over a broad and stable coalition during his previous four-year term, to confront some of the nation's most contentious issues.

Both Lapid and Bennett have vowed to end years of preferential treatment for the country's small but politically powerful ultra-Orthodox minority. Lapid and the junior partner in the coalition, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, will also put heavy pressure on Netanyahu to take a softer line toward the Palestinians. With President Barack Obama visiting next week, Netanyahu could be forced sooner than later to make difficult decisions about the Palestinians.

"The next term will be one of the most challenging in the history of the state," Netanyahu said Thursday. "We are facing great security and diplomatic challenges."

The ultra-Orthodox minority makes up roughly 8 percent of the country's 8 million people. Because of Israel's coalition system, their political parties have traditionally wielded power far beyond their numbers by guaranteeing a string of prime ministers a parliamentary majority.

Ultra-Orthodox political parties have used their kingmaker status to secure vast budgets for their religious schools and seminaries and to win automatic exemptions from compulsory military service for tens of thousands of young men to pursue religious studies. Older men collect welfare stipends while continuing to study full time.

The system has led to high rates of unemployment in the ultra-Orthodox community, and has bred widespread resentment among the general public. Attempts by ultra-Orthodox activists to impose their customs on broader society, such as pushing for gender-segregated buses, have further angered the public.

Both Lapid and Bennett tapped into this resentment to make great gains in the Jan. 22 election, promising to bring a "sharing of the burden" of military service and paying taxes. Lapid's Yesh Atid Party, running in its first election, emerged as the second-largest faction in parliament, with 19 of 120 seats. Bennett's rejuvenated Jewish Home captured 12 seats.

Netanyahu's Likud-Yisrael Beitenu bloc won 31 seats. Although it's the largest single faction, it is well below its 42-seat level in the previous parliament and far short of the 61 seats needed for a majority. With Lapid, Bennett and Livni's dovish "Movement" on board, Netanyahu controls a 68-seat majority.

Tough negotiations lasted nearly six weeks before it was finalized Friday, just a day ahead of a deadline that could have triggered new elections.

"Indeed, the new government is not what its leader had hoped for. He did everything he could to flee it, as if from a place plagued by boils, locusts, lice and pestilence. These were not the partners he had hoped for: He did his utmost to keep them out of the coalition, and they taught him a thing or two," wrote Yossi Verter in the liberal Haaretz daily.

"He is the Old Guard, they are the new. He, poor guy, will soon be history," he wrote.

In a sign of how tense the talks were, the negotiating teams decided not to hold a formal ceremony to sign the agreements, Yuval Karni reported in the more mainstream Yediot Ahronot paper. It was decided that the agreements would be signed by fax, so that the representatives of the parties would not even see each other at a signing ceremony.

The weeks of negotiations illustrated Netanyahu's limited room for maneuvering, and the significant leverage his partners will wield.

Forming a joint front, Lapid and Bennett forced the prime minister to keep the ultra-Orthodox parties, his traditional ally, out of the coalition. It is only the second time in the past 35 years that they have been in the opposition.

Lapid, a critic of excessive government spending, also forced Netanyahu to scale back the size of the Cabinet. The move had the added effect of infuriating members of Netanyahu's Likud Party by reducing the number of available Cabinet posts.

In a statement Thursday, Yesh Atid said its first order of business would be to submit a bill on reforming the draft system. It also said it would require all schools to teach a "core curriculum" that includes math, science and English. Ultra-Orthodox schools have frequently neglected these areas. The statement also promised "extensive economic steps" to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into the work force.

Lapid's party will control the finance and education ministries, giving him significant influence over budget and school policies. But taking away benefits from the ultra-Orthodox will not be easy. Netanyahu will be reluctant to take on his traditional allies, knowing he could rely on them again in the future.

The ultra-Orthodox, who have been able to mobilize tens of thousands of people into the streets, are already promising to put up a fight. "Our first mission is to topple this government," Arieh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, told Israel's Army Radio station.

Dealing with the Palestinian issue will be no easier. Netanyahu's own Likud Party is dominated by hard-liners who oppose significant concessions to the Palestinians, while Bennett, a former head of the West Bank settler movement, takes an even tougher line, calling on Israel to annex large chunks of West Bank territory that would have to be part of any future Palestinian state. He is sure to use his control over the Housing Ministry to try to build more settlement homes.

On the other hand, Lapid announced Thursday that the new coalition agreement promised a commitment to returning to the negotiating table with the Palestinians. Livni, who is to be Netanyahu's chief negotiator, ran for office on a platform devoted to reaching peace.

Netanyahu will be hard-pressed to balance these conflicting forces, yet there are some reasons for optimism.

After presiding over four years of deadlock and international isolation over the issue, Netanyahu has signaled he is eager to restart negotiations under his new government.

The Palestinians demand all of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — for a future state. They have demanded a freeze in settlement construction and a commitment to make Israel's 1967 lines the basis for a future border.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the Palestinians would have "no problem" talking to Lapid or Livni.

"But if we want to negotiate with the Israelis, the government should accept the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders and implement its obligations like the settlement freeze" he said.

The arrival of Obama next Wednesday could raise pressure on Netanyahu to float some new ideas for restarting talks. Though Obama is not bringing any bold peace plan, he will be meeting separately with both sides in order to lay the groundwork for future talks.

"Netanyahu is going to have Obama visiting next week in Jerusalem and therefore he had to have a more moderate, at least by outlook, government," said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Hebrew University. "So the government in terms of Livni getting to be a minister in this government and Lapid being more moderate, it's definitely more moderate when you look at it from the outside."

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Biden, Netanyahu set tone on Iran for Obama visit to Israel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday that Iran was getting closer to being able to build a nuclear bomb despite sanctions and diplomacy and said a "clear and credible military threat" was needed to halt Tehran's program.

Speaking via satellite link from Jerusalem, Netanyahu used an address to an influential U.S. pro-Israel lobbying group to underscore Israeli impatience with Washington's strategy on Iran, a message that could foreshadow his talks with President Barack Obama on a Middle East visit later this month.

"Words alone will not stop Iran. Sanctions alone will not stop Iran. Sanctions must be coupled with a clear and credible military threat if diplomacy and sanctions fail," Netanyahu said to loud cheers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington.

Despite Netanyahu's tough rhetoric, the hawkish prime minister gave no indication that Israel was ready to act precipitously at a time when world powers have re-engaged with Iran in new negotiations and he himself is caught up in the delicate task of forging a new government after January's elections.

But Netanyahu's remarks showed that the latest round of international talks with Iran in Kazakhstan last week had done little to soothe Israeli concerns about Tehran's nuclear drive.

Netanyahu repeated his assertion that Iran was using the negotiations "to buy time" to press ahead with its nuclear program.

Netanyahu has strongly hinted at Israeli plans to strike Iran's nuclear sites if it deems peaceful options to have failed. He has pressed the Obama administration to set strict limits on Tehran's nuclear development that would trigger U.S. military action - a demand that has fueled tensions between the two close allies. Obama has resisted the demand.

Speaking before Netanyahu, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden insisted that Obama was "not bluffing" about Washington's determination to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and said "all options including military force are on the table."

He repeated the administration's position that there is still time for a diplomatic solution, though he said "that window is closing."

IRAN 'CLOSER TO THAT RED LINE'

Netanyahu said Iran had not yet crossed a "red line" he set at the United Nations in September, when he said Tehran should not be allowed to amass enough medium-enriched uranium that, if purified further, would be enough to power a single warhead. He gave a rough deadline at the time of spring or summer 2013.

But he told AIPAC: "Iran is getting closer to that red line and its putting itself in a position to cross that line very quickly once it decides to do so ... We cannot allow Iran to cross that red line." However, Netanyahu stopped short of any explicit threat of Israeli military action.

Netanyahu's calculus on Iran is complicated by Israel's unsettled domestic politics. He is still struggling to forge a new coalition government after a surprisingly strong showing by centrist parties in January's elections.

At the talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the United States and five other powers offered Iran modest sanctions relief in return for Tehran curbing its most sensitive nuclear work. There was no breakthrough but the sides agreed to resume political discussions in early April.

Netanyahu has insisted that Iran, whose leaders have frequently threatened Israel, is using the negotiations to stall for time to continue development of nuclear bomb capability. Tehran denies it has any such aim. Israel is assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power.

"The latest efforts at conciliation and some kind of agreement with the Iranians have failed," Republican U.S. Senator John McCain told the audience earlier. "It's very clear that they are on the path to having a nuclear weapon. I don't think it's whether, it's obviously a question of when."

Obama has repeatedly pledged to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but his refusal to take an even stronger stance with Tehran has contributed to a testy relationship with Netanyahu.

Even so, the situation has calmed considerably since Obama addressed AIPAC last year and issued a pointed warning against "loose talk" of war with Iran.

A senior Israeli official said that while the Netanyahu government had hoped for a tougher line at the negotiations by the so-called P5+1 - made up of the United States, China, France, Russia, Britain and Germany - it was resigned to awaiting the results of the next round of talks.

Iran may have lessened Israel's immediate sense of urgency by turning some of its 20 percent-pure uranium - which is considered to be only a short technical step away from weapons-grade uranium - into fuel rods for a research reactor.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Mohammad Zargham)

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Netanyahu says Iran using nuclear talks to "buy time" for bomb

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Renewed international efforts to negotiate curbs on Iran's disputed nuclear program have backfired by giving it more time to work on building a bomb, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

His remarks on the inconclusive February 26-27 meeting between Iran and six world powers signaled impatience by Israel, which has threatened to launch preemptive war on its arch-foe, possibly in the coming months, if it deems diplomacy a dead end.

Senior U.S. diplomat Wendy Sherman flew in to brief Israel about the Kazakh-hosted talks, in which Tehran, which denies seeking nuclear arms, was offered modest relief from sanctions in return for halting mid-level uranium enrichment.

There was no breakthrough. The sides will reconvene in Almaty on April 5-6 after holding technical talks in Istanbul.

"My impression from these talks is that the only thing that is gained from them is a buying of time, and through this time-buying Iran intends to continue enriching nuclear material for an atomic bomb and is indeed getting closer to this goal," Netanyahu told his Cabinet in remarks aired by Israeli media.

Extrapolating from U.N. reports on Iran's enrichment of uranium to 20 percent fissile purity, a short technical step from weapons-grade, Netanyahu has set a mid-2013 "red line" for denying the Islamic republic the fuel needed for a first bomb.

Iranian media reported on Sunday the country was building around 3,000 new advanced enrichment centrifuges, a development that could accelerate the nuclear project.

The prospect of unilateral Israeli strikes, and the likely wide-ranging reprisals by Iran and its regional allies, worries Washington, which wants to pursue diplomacy as it winds down costly military commitments abroad.

OBAMA VISIT LOOMS

In an attempt to make their proposals more palatable to Tehran, the United States and five other world powers appeared to have softened previous demands in Almaty - for example regarding their requirement that the Iranians ship out their stockpile of the higher-grade uranium.

A senior Israeli official said that while the Netanyahu government had hoped for a tougher line by the so-called P5+1, it was resigned to awaiting the results of this round of talks.

"At the end of the day, what matters is that the Iranians end their enrichment, whether it's through shutting down their facilities or through more nuanced technical safeguards," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

The official would not comment on how or if the latest diplomacy had affected the readiness of Israel, which is widely assumed to have the region's only nuclear arsenal, to go to war.

Iran may have warded off that threat by turning some of its 20 percent-pure uranium into fuel rods for a research reactor.

The international standoff and shifting timelines are expected to dominate U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Israel later this month. The Israelis urge a tougher posture on Iran from their ally, which has a hefty military presence in the Gulf and says it is poised to use force as a last resort.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in a speech in Washington to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, echoed Netanyahu in voicing doubt that diplomacy would stop Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"Therefore, all options must remain on the table," he told the pro-Israel lobby group. "We expect all those who say it to mean it. We mean it."

Israel's dovish president, Shimon Peres, sounded more upbeat after meeting Sherman last Thursday. Peres said he had "total faith in the Obama administration, in its commitment and its actions in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons".

Obama's Israel visit has been overshadowed by local politics too, given the rightist Netanyahu's failure so far to build a new coalition government after he narrowly won a January 22 ballot.

Appealing to potential party allies to rally to him in the name of national security, Netanyahu told his cabinet: "To my regret this is not happening, and in the coming days I will continue my efforts to unify and galvanize forces ahead of the major national and international challenges that we face."

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert in Washington; Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Andrew Roche and Christopher Wilson)

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Netanyahu seeks time to build new Israeli coalition

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Deadlocked talks with potential coalition partners have forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek more time to build a new government and avert a possible snap election, officials said on Friday.

They said Netanyahu would meet President Shimon Peres on Saturday to ask for a two-week extension after his right-wing party, the narrow victor in Israel's January 22 ballot, exhausted the standard four weeks allotted to build a coalition.

Peres is expected to accept Netanyahu's request.

However, should the rightist premier fail to win enough allies for a parliamentary majority by March 16, the president could hand the task to a rival party leader. If no government emerged then, Israelis may have to return to the polls.

U.S. President Barack Obama is due to visit Israel at the end of March.

Netanyahu's trouble building a new government raises the question of whether he may call off that visit. But when asked about Israeli reports he might cancel, an official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no talk at this point about the possibility of scrubbing the trip.

White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said: "President Obama looks forward to travelling to Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman later this month."

Netanyahu's Likud-Beitenu ticket won 31 of the Knesset's 120 seats in the January vote - an eroded lead that required he cast a wide net for partners while juggling their disparate demands.

He has faced strong demands from the parties that placed second and fourth, Yesh Atid (There is a Future) and Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home), to cut back mass exemptions from military conscription and welfare stipends to ultra-Orthodox Jews.

David Shimron, Likud Beitenu's negotiator, said before meeting Bayit Yehudi on Friday that Yesh Atid was "ruling out" sitting in government with the ultra-Orthodox. Yesh Atid has not disputed that characterization.

"We need to clarify this and other matters with Bayit Yehudi," Shimron told reporters. "In the end of the day, we have to build a government, and we do not accept the invalidation of a sector that is part of the Israeli people."

Netanyahu's outgoing coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties which have generally backed him on other policies such the settlement of occupied West Bank land in defiance of world powers, who support the Palestinians' drive for statehood there.

Bayit Yehudi is even less accommodating of the Palestinians than Netanyahu, who says he wants to revive stalled peace talks. By contrast, Yesh Atid says Israeli diplomacy is too listless.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Michael Roddy)

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