Top

Netanyahu Obama Meeting

March 6, 2012 by · Comments Off on Netanyahu Obama Meeting 

Netanyahu Obama Meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes his campaign for stopping Iran’s nuclear program to Congress today after telling President Barack Obama his country must be free to decide whether to take military action.

Netanyahu, who met with Obama at the White House yesterday morning, ended the day with a speech to American Jewish leaders in which he said he won’t let Israel live in the “shadow of annihilation.”

While Netanyahu praised Obama for leading a campaign to toughen economic sanctions on Iran, he said such actions have not led Iran to curtail its nuclear program and Israel must be able to defend itself. Iran has denied its program is for anything but peaceful purposes, and the prospect of confrontation in a region with over half the world’s oil reserves has sent crude prices soaring.

“None of us can afford to wait much longer,” Netanyahu said before about 14,000 members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at the Washington Convention Center.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and other Congressional leaders, wrapping up a five-day trip to the U.S. and Canada.

The prime minister said in his White House meeting with Obama yesterday that Israel must remain “the master of its fate” in deciding whether a military strike is necessary to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.

In the meeting, Obama told Netanyahu “there is still a window” for a diplomatic solution to the confrontation with Iran. He said the U.S. has a “rock solid” commitment to Israel’s security and that “all options” are available to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

Bottom