Obama Says U.S. Won’t Rule Out Withholding UN Support for Israel [View all]

[Purveyor]

Mar 24, 2015 3:31 PM EDT

(Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama refused to rule out the possibility of allowing a Palestinian push for statehood through the United Nations as part of a U.S. reassessment of its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We’re going to do that evaluation,” Obama said at a news conference in response to a question on whether he would consider supporting Palestinian statehood at the UN. “We’re going to partly wait for an actual Israeli government to form.”

Such a move would represent a major shift in U.S. policy and trigger new tensions with Israel and between the Obama administration and Congress.

While other administration officials have said the U.S. would reevaluate its stance after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he won’t support the creation of a Palestinian state anytime soon, Tuesday’s White House news conference marked the strongest indication from the president of his intentions.

Obama’s comments also indicated that the administration plans to keep up pressure on Netanyahu, who has backed away from his original statements, made last week just before Israeli voters went to the polls.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-24/obama-says-netanyahu-remarks-on-peace-talks-dangerous-for-region