Obama, Netanyahu look past years of tensions in last meeting

NEW YORK (AP) — Setting aside years of tensions, President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bid each other farewell today with a strident affirmation of security ties between their nations and little public talk of their persistent differences over Iran, Israeli settlements and the Palestinians.

The two leaders were all smiles as they sat down in New York in what the White House said was likely their last meeting before Obama's presidency ends in January. Rather than delve into fraught debate about relaunching moribund peace talks, they cracked jokes about golfing together and future vacations devoid of stuffy meetings between heads of state.

Obama made only a passing reference to his opposition to the uptick in Israeli settlement construction in occupied lands as reporters were allowed in briefly for the start of the meeting.

"We do have concerns around settlement activity," Obama said, adding that the U.S. wanted to help Israel pursue peace. And that was that.

In private, Obama was more pointed, senior Obama administration officials said, and raised "profound U.S. concerns" that settlement-building was eroding prospects for peace. Netanyahu challenged that notion, said one official, adding that the two leaders had not "papered over" their differences.

Netanyahu's ardent opposition to Obama's nuclear deal with Iran – perhaps the biggest irritant in the relationship – did not come up, said the officials, who briefed reporters on the meeting on condition of anonymity. They said the meeting lasted about a half-hour.