Biden: Israel and U.S. stand together

JERUSALEM - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday that Israel enjoyed Washington's unstinting support for its security and repeated U.S. intent to curb Iran's nuclear program.

"There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security," Biden said as the two leaders made statements to the media following talks in Jerusalem.

This was a message Biden had been widely expected to bring in person from President Barack Obama.

The Vice President also said that the U.S. was willing to stand by those who will "take risks for peace," telling Netanyahu that he was confident Israel was prepared to take such risks.

"I think we are at a moment of real opportunity, and I think that the interests of the Israeli and Palestinian people, if everybody stops and takes a deep breath, are actually more in line than they are opposites," he said earlier.

'Layer of mistrust'
Biden added he hoped the beginning of indirect talks between Israelis and Palestinians would be "a vehicle by which we can begin to allay that layer of mistrust that has built up in the last several years."

He said he hoped this would lead to direct negotiations that would produce a historic peace treaty.

Israeli political sources have said he is also making clear Washington does not want Israel to risk any military action against Iran while the United States is seeking a wide coalition for sanctions on Tehran.

Netanyahu said Israel's security priorities were ensuring Iran did not build nuclear weapons and establishing peace with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors.

"I very much appreciate the efforts of President Obama and the American government to lead the international community to place tough sanctions on Iran," he said.

"The stronger those sanctions are, the more likely it will be that the Iranian regime will have to choose between advancing its nuclear program and advancing the future of its own permanence."

Israel has been pushing for stricter international sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program, and has refused to rule out a military strike if sanctions fail.

Biden is due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.

Polls show that Israelis have come to see Obama as less friendly to Israel than previous presidents and Biden's visit seemed aimed at least in part at assuaging some of those concerns, both among Israelis and their American supporters, whose backing is seen as crucial ahead of next November's congressional elections.

Obama began his term with a push for Mideast peace, prodding Israel to freeze its construction of West Bank settlements that swallow up land the Palestinians want for a future state. But that call came just as Netanyahu took over in Israel, and though the Israeli leader scaled back settlement construction, he would not accept a full freeze.

Obama's insistence on a total settlement freeze is seen by many in the region to have backfired by encouraging Palestinians to stake out a position that was politically untenable for Israel's hawkish government.

The Palestinians are still saying they will not talk directly to Israel unless it freezes settlement building completely.

But hours after Biden's arrival Monday, the U.S. announced the sides would begin indirect peace negotiations. The fact that the discussions will be held through a U.S. mediator attests to the estrangement between the Israelis and Palestinians, who have been speaking to each other directly, on and off, since the early 1990s.