Deal: No New Settlements for Iran Air Strike?

Biden: U.S. won’t stop Israeli strike on Iran

(Haaretz) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said today that the Obama administration would not stand in Israel’s way should the latter chooses to take military action to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat.

Israel has the right to determine its own course of action with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat regardless of what the Obama administration chooses to do, Biden told ABC reporter George Stephanopoulos.

When asked whether the Obama administration would restrain Israeli military action against Iran, Biden responded: “Israel can determine for itself – it’s a sovereign nation – what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.”

Stephanaopoulos posed the question three times, and each time Biden repeated that Israel was free to choose its actions.

“If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice.”

Israel denies Saudis gave IDF airspace clearance for Iran strike

Saudi Arabia has indicated to Israel that it would not protest use of its airspace by Israeli fighter jets in the event the government resolves to launch a military assault against Iran, according to a report which appeared in the British newspaper The Sunday Times.

According to The Sunday Times, Mossad chief Meir Dagan held secret meetings with Saudi officials, who gave their tacit approval to Israel’s use of the kingdom’s airspace.

STOP! IT’S BOLTON BUTTING IN AGAIN.

The report also quoted John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as saying that it would be “entirely logical” for Israeli warplanes to fly over Saudi Arabia en route to bombing nuclear targets in Iran.

Netanyahu: We have consensus on two-state solution

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet Sunday that the government has won “broad national consensus” in Israel for the concept of a two-state solution, hailing it as a major achievement of his 100-day-old coalition.

He said that the infusion of “real meaning” into the two-state solution was one of the most important achievements of his government so far.

“The Palestinians will have no choice but to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, the [Palestinian] refugees issue will be resolved outside of Israel, and Israel will be entitled to defensible borders with full demilitarization of the Palestinian state,” he said.

He also listed to other achievements – “quiet in southern Israel and power of deterrence.”

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Barak, who last met envoy George Mitchell on Tuesday in New York, travels to London later Sunday for another round of talks aimed at narrowing a rift with U.S. President Barack Obama, whose administration has demanded a halt to settlement activity.

The defense minister told reporters he was aiming for a “broader understanding with the United States on diplomatic moves, including a comprehensive regional agreement”.

Barak said Israel was also seeking “a way to translate” the 2003 road map peace plan into “a path acceptable to us, the United States and others”.