White House, Netanyahu: Progress achieved during visit
Addressing Netanyahu's US visit, White House says progress made on 'important issues'; Bibi says golden path found to allow America to move peace process forward, while persevering Israel's national interests
The White House said Thursday that talks with Israel showed "progress" after a visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.
"I think we are making progress on important issues," Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on President Barack Obama's plane. "I’d say that our staff and the prime minister’s staff again worked quite late into the evening."
However, he refused to address the substantive discussions.
The day before, Gibbs had admitted that the talks late Tuesday evening between Mr. Obama and Netanyahu had failed to resolve all the "disagreements," and that the president had asked his interlocutor to take steps to "build confidence" in the peace process in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, PM Netanyahu also said progress had been made during his US visit. The prime minister also postponed his meeting with Israel's inner cabinet to discuss gestures toward the Palestinians from Thursday to 1 pm Friday.
"We think we have found a golden way that would allow the Americans to move the peace process forward while preserving our national interests," Netanyahu said en route from Washington.
Netanyahu's Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser said he would assemble top ministers to consider a package of goodwill gestures drawn up by his and Obama's advisers in a flurry of White House meetings.
As far as is known, the White House did not set a timetable for Netanyahu's answer to the overall outline for progress on the Palestinian state, topped at this time by the issue of east Jerusalem construction.
Roni Sofer, Reuters, and AFP contributed to the story
