Obama Cites ‘Window’ for Diplomacy on Iran Bomb

WASHINGTON — With Israel warning that it may mount a military strike against Iran, President Obama welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to the White House, but signaled that he would press for more time for a campaign of economic sanctions to work on Tehran.

Appearing with Mr. Netanyahu in the Oval Office before their meeting, Mr. Obama declared that “the United States will always have Israel’s back.” He reiterated that the United States would prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but he added, “We do believe there is still a window that allows for a diplomatic resolution to this issue.”

Mr. Netanyahu, sitting next to the president, declared that “Israel must have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat.” He thanked Mr. Obama for affirming,in a speech to a pro-Israel lobbying group on Sunday, that, as Mr. Netanyahu put it, “Israel has the sovereign right to make its own decisions.” Israeli officials interpreted this to mean that the United States would not try to block a preemptive Israeli strike.

While the two leaders struck a tableau of shoulder-to-shoulder solidarity, the differences in their approach to Iran were on display. Mr. Netanyahu said nothing about diplomacy and the economic sanctions that Mr. Obama promoted. And while the president repeated his vow that “all options are on the table” to halt Iran’s pursuit of a weapon, he did not explicitly mention military force, as he did on Sunday.

Mr. Obama said once again that that the United States rejected a policy of containing a nuclear-armed Iran, saying that a nuclear arms race in the Middle East would follow, raising the specter of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, and that an Iran with nuclear weapons would be able to behave with impunity in the region.

Mr. Netanyahu sought to eliminate any daylight between the United States and Israel on Iran, noting that Iran’s leaders vilify the United States as the “Great Satan” and Israel as the “Little Satan.”

“We are you, and you are us,” he said. “We are together.”

Israeli officials have been comforted in recent days by Mr. Obama’s explicit rejection of a containment policy, as well as his affirmation that Israel has the right to act on its own to defend its national security. But the president has not embraced another key Israeli demand: that military action be taken before Iran acquires the ability to manufacture a bomb, as opposed to before it actually builds one.

Still, officials said, Mr. Obama is likely to discuss in greater detail with Mr. Netanyahu the “red lines” that the United States has established on Iran, even as he tries to persuade Mr. Netanyahu to give diplomacy and pressure more time.

The mood in the Oval Office was somber and businesslike, as it usually is in meetings between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu — two men who have had a sometimes fractious relationship over Middle East diplomacy.

In their last Oval Office encounter, in May 2011, Mr. Netanyahu summarily rejected a proposal by the president to revive moribund peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. With a stone-faced Mr. Obama sitting next to him, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel would not pursue “peace-based illusions.”

This time, the peace process will barely figure in the conversation. Neither man is particularly focused on reviving the talks, with election-year politics in both the United States and Israel discouraging any bold new proposals, and with the Palestinian Authority more focused on unity talks with Hamas and its campaign for recognition at the United Nations than on talks with Israel.

The New York Times