White House reaffirms Obama support for Kerry peace push
Reports in Israeli media to the contrary are "totally false."
By MICHAEL WILNERUS President Barack Obama makes a State of the Union address, January 28, 2014. (photo credit: REUTERS)
WASHINGTON -- The White House pushed back on Sunday against reports in the Israeli press that US President Barack Obama does not support US Secretary of State John Kerry's aggressive effort to reach a framework agreement for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians."Any notion that Secretary Kerry failed to obtain the President's backing for his efforts is totally false," White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said on Sunday."President Obama remains fully invested in Secretary Kerry's tireless work on behalf of peace, and those efforts are not focused on confronting the parties— they are aimed at bridging differences and developing a framework for negotiation on the core issues."Over the weekend, Channel 10 and the Times of Israel reported that Kerry requested the president's support to "impose terms for peace" on the two parties, which the president would not provide.Channel 10 claimed that, without Obama's support, talks had "pretty much collapsed."Sources for the story were not revealed by Channel 10 and were identified as "unnamed sources close to the negotiations."
