WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama finally telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his election victory, but apparently it did not improve strained relations between the two leaders.

Soon after the Thursday afternoon call, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest indicated at a news conference that the Obama administration still had questions about Mr Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution, which calls for the creation of a separate country for Palestinians.

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On Monday, a day before the elections that he won, Mr Netanyahu declared that if re-elected for a fourth term, he would discard the two-state option.

But on Thursday he told a US news outlet, MSNBC, that he was not against the two-state solution, although he still believed that it could not be implemented.

At a White House news briefing, a journalist asked Mr Earnest if the Obama administration was satisfied with the change in Mr Netanyahu’s position on the two-state solution.

“What is apparent is that in the context of the campaign and while he was the sitting Prime Minister of Israel, he walked back from commitments that Israel had previously made to a two-state solution,” Mr Earnest responded.

He noted that for more than a decade, the United States, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, had supported this approach to address the conflict between the Palestinian people and Israel. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers had also “unanimously supported” this policy, on more than one occasion, he added.

Mr Earnest recalled that in December, the US House of Representatives also passed legislation, identifying the two-state solution as the goal to resolve this conflict. That’s why the change in Mr Netanyahu’s approach was a cause of concern for the United States, he said.

“So … we certainly are in a position to evaluate our approach to these issues, given that the Prime Minister essentially backed away from commitments that Israel had previously made to this effort,” Mr Earnest said.

On Thursday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said that after Mr Netanyahu’s backtracking had forced the Palestinians to seek direct UN recognition for a separate state of their own.

In the past, the United States had vetoed all such moves, but the US media reported earlier this week that Washington might withdraw its objection to the Palestinian move, allowing it to pass a UN Security Council vote.

Published in Dawn March 21st , 2015

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