Panetta meets with Barak at the Pentagon

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met at the Pentagon on Thursday with the outgoing Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak who described Palestinian Authority statehood bid at the United Nations as "a mistake". "U.S.-Israeli defense relationship I believe is stronger than it ever has been. That relationship is grounded, very frankly, on shared values, on the values that we have as nations. It is based on the ironclad commitment of the United States to Israel's security. And a lot of that was the focus of our discussions today", said Panetta in remarks after the meeting. "Minister Barak and I reviewed Israel's efforts to defend its people from the threat of rockets that were fired from the Gaza Strip, Operation Pillar of Defense. As President Obama made clear throughout the recent conflict, the United States strongly supports Israel's right to defend itself and strongly condemns the rocket attacks against Israel", he added. Panetta noted that the U.S. is "encouraged that the cease-fire agreement has held, and we will continue to work with Israel and our partner Egypt to end smuggling of arms into Gaza while ensuring the safe passage of humanitarian aid". "No nation should have to live in fear of these kinds of attacks. And that is why I'm very proud that our two countries cooperated so closely to field the Iron Dome anti-rocket system. Iron Dome performed, I think it's fair to say, remarkably well during the recent escalation", he added. Panetta said that there remains "a need and an opportunity for action on both sides, Israeli and Palestinian, to hopefully move towards a negotiated two-state solution. We are all clear-eyed about the challenges, and we know what the difficulties are. But there is no alternative to negotiation between the two parties". The top Pentagon official also mentioned that he addressed the Iranian issue with Barak where they discussed "our continuing concerns over Iran's destabilizing activities and its nuclear program...we will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and that remains our policy". "Iran is facing unprecedented pressure from the sanctions, crippling sanctions that have been imposed by the international community. And I continue to believe that there is time and space for an effort to try to achieve a diplomatic solution, which remains, I believe, the preferred outcome for both the United States and for Israel", he added. Barak, who recently announced that he will retire from political life after Israeli parliamentary elections next January, said that he reflected with Panetta on the last operation in the Gaza "where Iron Dome really changed the landscape of the conflict and enabled us to act forcefully within a short time frame, trying to hit the target that should be hit but minimize the damage to civilians on the other side, while our population, 1.2 million, is continuously shelled by rockets and missiles from the Gaza Strip". "We share the same beliefs in freedom, liberty, democracy, human dignity, but the U.S. strengths, as well as our active vigilance in the issues related to Israel, but mainly your role in the whole region are the real guarantee for the opportunity for these values to flourish", he added. Barak noted that Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations General Assembly in New York "is a mistake...nothing can replace the direct negotiation with no preconditions". "I believe that he will have undoubtedly a majority, probably quite impressive one. And it will mean that they are a nonmember state. Some people are worried about the possibility that once they are a nonmember state, that they might try to go to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or whatever", he concluded.