Israeli focus on Iran may irk Obama

WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- Efforts by Israel to emphasize threats posed by Iran over Palestinian land-for-peace negotiations won't be well received in Washington, diplomatic sources say.

As new Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu prepares for his first summit meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on May 18, advisers to the prime minister are working to develop a foreign policy framework that emphasizes the Iranian threat to Israel and lessens the prominence of negotiating with the Palestinian Authority and Syria to establish a "two-state solution," The New York Times reported Monday.

But unnamed sources told the newspaper that framework will be a tough sell to the Obama administration, which views the two issues as closely connected and believes broader Mideast problems, such as Iran's nuclear ambitions, are best addressed by solving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

"President Obama views the region as a whole, and trying to isolate each problem does not reflect reality," a senior American official told the Times. "It will be a lot easier to build a coalition to deal with Iran if the peace process is moving forward."

An Israeli source, however, said Netanyahu will tell Obama a Palestinian state is Israel's goal, but that it is far off.