JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Washington on March 2, and he is to discuss Iran and the peace process with US President Barack Obama, his office said yesterday.
The visit will take place as US Secretary of State John Kerry seeks to forge a framework agreement which will keep Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the table beyond a looming April deadline, despite little outward sign of any progress to date.
“The prime minister will be going to the United States on March 2 for the annual meeting of AIPAC in Washington,” an official in Netanyahu’s office said, referring to a powerful pro-Israel lobby group.
“He is also expected to meet President Obama, and after that he will fly to Los Angeles for meetings,” he said.
“PM Netanyahu will meet with President Obama next month. Will discuss ways to prevent Iran from producing nukes as well as ways to advance peace with the PA (Palestinian Authority),” his spokesman Ofir Gendelman wrote on Twitter.
Israel and the Palestinians embarked on a nine-month track of direct peace talks in July 2013, with Kerry investing huge efforts to keep them on track, despite multiple setbacks and little visible sign of progress.
With the April 29 deadline on the horizon, Kerry is trying to hammer out a framework agreement to guide the talks forward.
Quoting a senior Israeli official, Haaretz newspaper said Netanyahu and Obama would meet at the White House on March 3 for talks on the framework agreement which is supposed to permit the negotiations to continue to the end of 2014.
Israel’s top-selling Yediot Aharonot said Netanyahu, who was also expected to meet with Kerry, would try to focus the talks on Iran, while Obama was expected to push the issue of the peace talks.
Netanyahu and Obama will also discuss talks between the P5+1 group of world powers which are trying to thrash out a permanent deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, building on an landmark interim agreement signed in Geneva in November.
Following his meeting with Obama, Netanyahu is to address the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee before heading to California.
There he was expected to hold meetings with hi-tech business leaders in Silicon Valley and participate in events in Los Angeles to promote tourism to Israel.
AFP
