Obama Presses Netanyahu to Resist Strikes on Iran
By MARK LANDLER Published: March 5, 2012
Obama Presses N By MARK LANDL http://w w w .nytim default March 6, 2012 The New York Tim nytimes.com 12
WASHINGTON — With Israel warning of a possible military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, President Obama urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday to give diplomacy and economic sanctions a chance to work before resorting to military action. President Obama met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Monday in an atmosphere of election-year politics and a deepening confrontation with Tehran.
The meeting, held in a charged atmosphere of election-year politics and a deepening confrontation with Tehran, was nevertheless “friendly, straightforward, and serious,” a White House official said. But it did not resolve basic differences between the two leaders over how to deal with the Iranian threat.
Mr. Netanyahu, the official said, reiterated that Israel had not made a decision on striking Iran, but he expressed deep skepticism that international pressure would persuade Iran’s leaders to forsake the development of nuclear weapons. Mr. Netanyahu, according to the official, argued that the West should not reopen talks with Iran until it agreed to a verifiable suspension of its uranium enrichment activities
— a condition the White House says would doom talks before they began.
Mr. Obama, the official said, had maintained during their Oval Office meeting that the European Union’s impending oil sanctions and the blacklisting of Iran’s central bank could yet force Tehran back to the bargaining table — not necessarily eliminating the nuclear threat but pushing back the timetable for the development of a weapon. “We do believe there is still a window that allows for a diplomatic resolution to this issue,” the president said. Mr. Netanyahu, speaking later on Monday to an influential pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said, “We waited for diplomacy to work;
we’ve waited for sanctions to work; none of us can afford to wait much longer.”
Both leaders agreed to try to tamp down the heated debate about Iran in their countries, officials said.
Mr. Obama said the talk of war was driving up oil prices and undermining the effect of the sanctions on Iran. Mr. Netanyahu expressed frustration that statements by American officials about the negative effects of military action could send a message of weakness to Tehran.
An American official said the president was trying to avoid the perception that he was publicly pressuring the Israeli leader, though supporters of Israeli interpreted it as a signal that the United States recognized Israel’s right to make its own decision on military action. Whether Israel could, in fact, carry out an effective strike on Iran without American support is unclear.
“My supreme responsibility as prime minister of Israel is to ensure that Israel remains the master of its fate,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
