Clinton sends a warning to Iran from Jerusalem

Mideast peace, America's defining issue for decades of dealings with Israel and its Arab neighbors, was just a postscript Monday as Hillary Rodham Clinton made perhaps her final visit to the region as secretary of state.
 
Three years after President Barack Obama declared the plight of the Palestinians "intolerable," his administration no longer sees the failing Arab-Israeli peace efforts with the same immediacy. U.S. interests are focused now on Iran and Syria, though the deep differences between Israel and the Palestinians are not ignored.
 
"Peace among Israel, the Palestinian people and all of Israel's Arab neighbors is crucial for Israel's long-term progress and prosperity," Clinton said following discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's president, foreign minister and defense minister.
 
Clinton also met Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, but she couldn't report any progress toward an accord that might secure an independent Palestine and an Israel at peace with its neighbors.
 
In a departure from the usual pattern for top U.S. diplomats, she did not travel to the Palestinian Authority's West Bank seat of government in Ramallah.
 
The Palestinians said a visit was unnecessary because Clinton had met with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, just a few days earlier in Paris.
 
Israel has defied Obama's call to halt settlement construction in occupied lands, and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank has refused to resume negotiations, leaving peace hopes in a tense status quo with no breakthrough in sight.
 
Both Israelis and Palestinians are frustrated with one another and with Obama's peace efforts so far.
 
Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said Obama's Mideast policy has been a "disaster."

Syria's civil war, Egypt's political instability and the Iranian nuclear program have all overshadowed the moribund peace process.                

In those regards, Clinton confirmed that the US will not hesitate to use full force against Iran to prevent the Islamic state from obtaining nuclear weapons, adding that she is consulting with top Israeli figures on how to conduct that.               

During the final hours of her trip to Jerusalem, Clinton said that the peace talks between Isreal and the Palestinians will not resume unless one side expresses a desire to do so.                

Her talks in the Hebrew state were conducted with top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman.
 
Iran's nuclear program has become the most pressing problem for the U.S. and Israel, and one that is a far easier cause to take up for an American administration in an election year. Republicans have consistently criticized Obama for putting too much pressure on Israel in the peace process and being too weak on Iran.
 
Israeli officials believe that Iran could have the ingredients and know-how to build a nuclear bomb in a matter of months, though they say it would be at least another year to the actual manufacture of the weapon. That has raised fears around the world that Israel could strike in the near future. Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be a mortal threat.
 
AP/LBCI