Post date: Mar 20, 2013 3:29:10 PM
U.S. President Barack Obama jokes with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he is shown a red line to follow during a visit to the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
BEN GURION AIRPORT, LOD, ISRAEL (MARCH 20, 2013) (HOST POOL) - Differences between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over setting a "red line" for Iran's nuclear project were never a joking matter.
Until now, when both leaders unleashed some rapid fire one-liners during Obama's tour of a partially U.S.-funded Iron Dome anti-missile system that he inspected after a red carpet welcome ceremony at Tel Aviv airport on Wednesday (March 20).When Obama asked an Israeli military official conducting the tour where he should start walking he was shown a red line painted on the tarmac that led to the missile battery:
Pointing at Netanyahu Obama said:
"The red line? Okay," "he's always talking to me about red lines."
"This was minutely planned," Netanyahu joked back.
In a speech at the United Nations in September, Netanyahu famously drew a red line on a cartoonish drawing of a bomb, depicting the point where he said Iran will have enough medium-enriched uranium to move rapidly toward building a nuclear bomb.
Obama has resisted setting any such line for Iran, which Netanyahu has said it could reach this spring or summer. Tehran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes only.