Iran deal reported as Mideast sounds off after talks

Middle East voices were buzzing Tuesday after President Obama’s meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Hamas calling Obama’s words deceptive and Iran’s supreme leader accusing the U.S. of hatching plots against the Islamic Republic.

Israel’s Channel 2 reported later on Tuesday that Netanyahu told Obama he would not strike Iran until the end of the year nor interfere in Washington’s attempts at dialogue with Tehran, and Obama gave a timetable of three months instead of six to reassess progress with Iran talks.

{mosads}Incidentally, this timeline corresponds with the three-month cap for negotiations proposed earlier this month by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Also Tuesday, 76 senators — led by Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) — and at least 159 House members  — led by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) — signed onto letters urging a commitment to Israel and ending Palestinian violence while supporting direct, bilateral negotiations.

“The more capable and responsible Palestinian forces became, the more they demonstrate the ability to govern and to maintain security, the easier it will be for them to reach an accord with Israel,” read the senators’ letter. “…We hope that you will promote far greater involvement and participation by the Arab states both in moving toward normal ties with Israel and in encouraging moderate Palestinian elements.”

Obama and Netanyahu laid bare their differences at the White House on Monday, displaying some of the cracks in an Oval Office press availability afterward. Obama wants to press forward with a two-state solution, which was not mentioned by Netanyahu except to say that Israel does not want to rule the Palestinians and that the Palestinians need to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

More unity was displayed on the need to address Iran and its budding nuclear program, though Obama is pressing for talks as Israel has kept potential strikes on nuclear facilities on the table.

But after the flashbulbs died down and Netanyahu began his meetings with congressional leaders and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, the post-game analysis heated up on the other side of the globe.

One of the major points of contention in the road map for Mideast peace is the violent split between Fatah and Hamas, which essentially would turn a two-state solution into a three-state solution, with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority ruling the West Bank and Hamas still controlling Gaza.

On Tuesday, Hamas lashed out at the president in a statement. “Obama’s remarks and expressions of hope were intended to deceive the international community regarding everything connected to the continuing behavior and existence of the racist and radical Zionist entity,” Hamas said.

Just after the two leaders met, Hamas militants fired Qassam rockets into the Israeli town of Sderot for the first time in two months, wounding one woman. Israel responded hours later by bombing Hamas supply tunnels near the Egyptian border in Gaza.

{mosads}Also on Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, struck out at the U.S., accusing America of hatching plots to undermine the Islamic Republic.

“Through our friends overseas we have obtained precise information that Americans deployed behind our western borders are busy collecting information, spending money and supplying arms to hatch plots and train terrorists,” Khamenei said in remarks carried by the Islamic Republic News Agency. “So, Iranian Kurds and the entire Iranian nation should be fully aware and on alert.”

The ayatollah was speaking to a Kurdish audience, claiming that the U.S. was conspiring to dominate the ethnic group.

Iran’s presidential adviser on international affairs called the Obama-Netanyahu meeting “media hype,” according to IRNA.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, lauded fresh ties between Iraq and Iran and said that the “presence of arrogant powers in Iraq will prepare the ground for their intervention in Iraqi affairs.”

In Israel, the leader of the party in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition that is pushing for a two-state solution the most seemed pleased with the Iran focus in the White House talks.

Defense Minister and Labor party leader Ehud Barak said Tuesday that he’d spoken by phone with Netanyahu after the Obama meeting, and got details that led him to believe “that we are at the start of serious dialogue with the Americans.” Barak added that he was “happy to hear that Obama understands that the Iranian issue is very serious.”

“The challenge is not only how to talk to them but what do we do if it turns out that the Iranians are continuing to consistently strive for a military nuclear ability,” Barak said to reporters while touring Israeli military facilities.

The intended path of the Obama administration in the Mideast peace process will likely become clearer after Obama meets with visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak next Tuesday and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas later that week on May 28.