WASHINGTON - The United States and Israel agree that diplomacy is the best way to resolve the crisis over potential Iranian nuclear weapons, President Barack Obama said Monday, an optimistic view that Israel's leader declined to endorse publicly.
"Both the prime minister and I prefer to solve this diplomatically," Obama said as he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began several hours of White House consultations. The U.S. will consider all options in confronting what it sees as the unacceptable outcome of an Iranian bomb, Obama said.
Netanyahu used a brief, cordial session in front of the White House cameras to remind his host that Israel will decide for itself how to confront a looming threat that both unites and divides the longtime allies.
Israel, he said, must remain "the master of its fate."
That was a pointed reference to the main question hanging over Monday's high-stakes meeting: Whether to try to stop an Iranian bomb with a military attack in the next several months. Many in the Israeli government lean toward striking very soon, a course the Obama administration sees as dangerously premature.
Looking directly at Obama, Netanyahu said Iran is right about one thing: Israel and the United States are indistinguishable as Iran's enemies.
"We are you and you are us," he said.
Obama will try to persuade Netanyahu to slow quickening pressures among many in his hawkish government to attack Iran's disputed nuclear development sites.
Each man tried to display unity despite policy and personal differences, but ended up putting some of their divisions on display.
"Israel and America stand together," Netanyahu said.
The president is expected to tell Netanyahu in private at the White House that although the U.S. is committed to Israel's security, it does not want to be dragged into another war. Obama is unlikely to spell out U.S. "red lines" -- markers that would trigger a military response -- despite Israeli pressure to do so.
"It is profoundly in the United States' interest to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. We do not want to see a nuclear arms race in one of the most volatile regions in the world. We do not want the possibility of a nuclear weapon falling in to the hands of terrorists, we do not want a regime that has been a state sponsor of terrorists being able to feel that it can act more aggressively," Obama said.
Obama previewed the Oval Office meeting with a speech Sunday to American supporters of Israel, a crucial constituency in this election year.
Obama said he does not want war but insists he would attack Iran if that was the only option left to stop that nation from getting a nuclear weapon.
"Loose talk of war" only plays into Iran's hands, Obama said.
U.S. officials believe that while Tehran has the capability to build a nuclear weapon, it has not yet decided to do so. They want to give sanctions time to pressure Iran to give up any military nuclear ambitions. Israel says the threat is too great to wait and many officials there are advocating a pre-emptive strike.
Obama did not directly ask Israel to stand down and made a point of saying Israel should always have the right to defend itself as it sees fit.
That was the part of Obama's speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that Netanyahu said he liked best. Speaking to reporters in Canada ahead of his arrival in the U.S., Netanyahu made no reference to the sanctions and diplomacy Obama emphasized.
Obama is unlikely to convince Netanyahu that economic sanctions and diplomacy are enough to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and he is unlikely to win any new concessions from Netanyahu on peace talks, the issue that drew bad blood between the two men in previous meetings and led the Israeli leader to scold Obama publicly last year.
Netanyahu has not publicly backed a military strike, but his government spurned arguments from top U.S. national security leaders that a pre-emptive attack would fail.
"Now is not the time for bluster," Obama said. "Now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in."
Israeli President Shimon Peres, who had a meeting with Obama on Sunday, said he "came out with the feeling that the man is determined to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons."
Netanyahu was more subdued in reacting to Obama's comments Sunday, saying, "more than everything, I value his statement that Israel must be able to protect itself from all threats."
Obama framed military force as a last resort, not the next option at a time when sanctions are squeezing Iran. He said just the talk of war has driven up the price of oil to the benefit of Iran.
Although Israel says it has not decided whether to strike, it has signalled readiness to do so within the next several months. The top U.S. military officer recently said a unilateral strike would be "imprudent," a mild catchall for the chain-reaction of oil price hikes, Iranian retaliation, terror strikes and a possible wider Mideast war that U.S. officials fear could flow from an Israeli strike.
Israel says a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence. It cites Iranian leaders' repeated calls for Israel's destruction, support for anti-Israel militant groups and its arsenal of ballistic missiles that are already capable of striking Israel. Israel also fears a nuclear Iran would touch off an atomic weapons race in a region hostile to Israel's existence.
Addressing the powerful pro-Israel lobby, Obama delivered messages to multiple political audiences: Israel, Iran, Jewish voters, a restless Congress, a wary international community and three Republican presidential contenders who will speak to the same group Tuesday.
At the core was his assertion that the United States will never settle for containing a nuclear-armed Iran or fail to defend Israel.
The head of the UN nuclear agency said Monday his organization has "serious concerns" that Iran may be hiding secret atomic weapons work, as he acknowledged failure in his latest attempt to probe such suspicions and listed recent atomic advances by Iran.
"The agency continues to have serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said in Vienna.
