US President Barack Obama is willing to up pressure against the Iranian nuclear
program if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will open talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on
borders and security issues, The Sunday Times reported.
According to the
report, the US promised to raise the heat on the Iran issue in return for more
open talks with the Palestinian leader even if core
issues such as Jerusalem and the issues of Palestinian refugees is not
raised.
The Times quoted Aaron David Miller, of the Woodrow Wilson
Center, an adviser on the Middle East to six US secretaries of state as saying
"Barack Obama does not want to be the American president on whose watch Iran
acquires a nuclear weapon or be accused of presiding over the demise of what’s
left of the two-state solution."
Two of the prime minister’s aides will arrive
in Washington this week in an attempt to link the Iranian and Palestinian
issues, The Times reported. If the report over Obama's attempt to appease Netanyahu is authentic,
the White House is receptive to the link.
White House officials spent
weeks in Israel attempting to form an alliance of pro-western states, including
Turkey and Jordan, to help stabilize the region, The Sunday Times also
reported.