Obama after Meeting Merkel: Real differences with Netanyahu on Iran

Local Editor

US President Barack Obama said he has "very real differences" with "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran and the need for more sanctions.

He also defended his decision not to meet with Netanyahu during his upcoming Washington visit, which comes shortly before "Israel's" elections.

Obama spoke Monday at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
He also said as much as he loves Merkel, if she was two weeks out from an election, she wouldn't have received a White House invitation either. But Obama says he suspected she wouldn't have asked for one.

Regarding the Ukrainian crisis, Obama stated that the option of supplying Kiev with "lethal defensive weapons" is on the table. However, the German chancellor reiterated there is no "military solution" to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
"The possibility of lethal defensive weapons is one of those options that's being examined," the US president said during a joint press conference with Merkel in Washington.

"I want to emphasize that a decision has not yet been made," Obama said when questioned about weapons a second time. "It is true that if, in fact, diplomacy fails, what I've asked my team to do is to look at all options. What other means can we put in place to change Mr. Putin's calculus?"

Merkel - who conducted direct negotiations with Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, alongside French President Francois Hollande - struck a less antagonistic, if equally firm, tone.

"We continue to pursue a diplomatic solution, although we have suffered a lot of setbacks. But, I've always said I don't see a military solution in this conflict," she said through a translator.

Merkel may fly to Minsk on Wednesday for four-way talks that will include Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France, in another attempt to resurrect the increasingly irrelevant ceasefire roadmap signed back in September.

"I myself, actually, would not be able to live with not having made this attempt," said Merkel, who still accuses Moscow of "violating" the initial terms of the Minsk treaty and continuing support to anti-Kiev rebels.

Yet both leaders appeared somewhat skeptical at the prospect of a diplomatic solution.

"If, at a certain point in time, one has to say that a success is not possible, even if one puts every effort into it, then the United States and Europe have to sit together and try and explore further possibilities, what one can do," admitted the German chancellor.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team