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Netanyahu and Obama Met at the White House – The Nature of Their Meeting is Unknown
United States President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu met last night at the White House, and had a lengthy private conversation. They then decided not to reveal the nature of their meeting to anyone. The White House reports that the two discussed bilateral issues, and Obama reiterated his obligation to work on maintaining Israel's security.
United States President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu met last night at the White House, and spoke at length on political issues. Members of the Prime Minister's entourage said the two also discussed the Iranian nuclear crisis. For forty minutes, representatives of both governments were present at the meeting, including National Security Adviser Retired Gen. Jim Jones, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell and Director for Near Eastern Affairs at the National Security Council Dan Shapiro - on the American side. The Israeli delegation included Defense Minister Ehud Barak, National Security Council head Uzi Arad, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren and Prime Minister's Office adviser Yitzhak Molcho.
At the conclusion of the first 40 minutes, everyone was asked to leave the room, and Obama and Netanyahu remained alone, talking for another hour.
Both sides refused to provide any information about the nature of the meeting, but the White House did release a short statement with the approval of the Israeli delegation. "The President reaffirmed our strong commitment to Israel's security, and discussed security cooperation on a range of issues."
In order to ensure that the exact details of the meeting would remain a secret, Prime Minister Netanyahu cancelled a press conference that was scheduled to take place after the meeting. Defense Minister Ehud Barak also cancelled interviews that he had arranged with Israel and American media sites.
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