WASHINGTON — U.S. officials and lawmakers pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to make peace with the Palestinians and halt construction of Jewish settlements, echoing President Barack Obama’s blunt demands.
Winding up a three-day trip after talks with Obama, Netanyahu met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and held sessions with House and Senate leaders and a group of Jewish legislators. He also met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
After a meeting with the leader of the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, Netanyahu glossed over differences between his stance and Obama’s, saying that the U.S. and Israel were working together to resume Mideast peacemaking and "bring other elements in the Arab world into the process.”
Netanyahu said the new thing emerging from his talks with Obama is that "not only Israel has to give but also the Palestinians and Arab countries, not at the end of the process but now. They have to take ... steps to improve relations with Israel and to begin to set into motion reconciliation between Israel and the Arab world.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who visits the White House next week, has said he would not resume talks unless Israel committed to a two-state solution and agreed to freeze settlements. His aides offered praise for Obama.
by the associated press
Winding up a three-day trip after talks with Obama, Netanyahu met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and held sessions with House and Senate leaders and a group of Jewish legislators. He also met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
After a meeting with the leader of the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, Netanyahu glossed over differences between his stance and Obama’s, saying that the U.S. and Israel were working together to resume Mideast peacemaking and "bring other elements in the Arab world into the process.”
Netanyahu said the new thing emerging from his talks with Obama is that "not only Israel has to give but also the Palestinians and Arab countries, not at the end of the process but now. They have to take ... steps to improve relations with Israel and to begin to set into motion reconciliation between Israel and the Arab world.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who visits the White House next week, has said he would not resume talks unless Israel committed to a two-state solution and agreed to freeze settlements. His aides offered praise for Obama.
by the associated press
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