Even as he grappled with the Ukraine crisis, President Barack Obama turned to White House talks yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking to nudge him forward in Middle East peace efforts and ease his suspicions about diplomacy with Iran.

With time running out for a framework Israeli-Palestinian deal to salvage a troubled US-brokered peace process, Obama and Netanyahu sparred in public comments before their meeting, which comes at a critical juncture for the President’s second-term foreign policy agenda.

Netanyahu arrived in Washington to a veiled but blunt warning from Obama that it would be harder to protect Israel against efforts to isolate it internationally if peace efforts failed.

Signalling that Obama’s overture could fall on deaf ears, Netanyahu, in a statement issued by his office, put the onus on Palestinians to advance prospects for peace. “We need to stand firm on our crucial interests. I’ve proven that I’m doing that, against all pressure and all uncertainty, and I’ll continue to do that here as well,” the right-wing Israeli leader said.

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