Obama, Netanyahu to meet May 20

May 5, 2011, 1:59 GMT

Washington - US President Barack Obama is to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu May 20 at the White House, part of a high profile visit by the Israeli leader to the United States.

'The leaders look forward to discussing the full range of issues of mutual interest to the United States and Israel,' the White House said in a brief statement Wednesday.

Netanyahu is coming to Washington to address the annual conference of the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful of the US groups that advocate for Israel, from May 22-24.

He has also been invited by Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner to deliver a formal address to Congress during the visit.

The speech to Congress was seen by analysts as part of a manoeuvring amid the stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks, with Obama and Netanyahu in a sort of 'diplomatic race' to see who will be the first to lay out a new plan to restart talks, the New York Times wrote recently.

'People seem to think that whoever goes first gets the upper hand,' Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and a director at the New America Foundation, was quoted as saying.

The Jerusalem Post daily has reported that Netanyahu is set to unveil a new diplomatic initiative this month.

Earlier Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Fatah party, and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal shook hands in Cairo on a reconciliation deal which ended a bitter four-year-long dispute between the two largest Palestinian factions.

Netanyahu has said Israel will not deal with any government which includes Hamas so long as the movement refuses to accept the conditions imposed on it by the so-called Quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

The US State Department said Wednesday that the reconciliation agreement must be aimed at advancing the prospects of peace with Israel. The US lists Hamas as a terrorist organization and has not said how it would respond to a government that included the militants.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner reiterated longstanding demands that Hamas recognize the state of Israel, renounce violence and accept previous agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

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