After Obama, UN chief calls to congratulate Netanyahu

A day after US President Barack Obama made a long-awaited phone call on Thursday to congratulate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his recent election win, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a similar call to the Israeli leader.

During the conversation, the UN chief told Netanyahu he “looked forward to working with the new government upon its formation and urged [him] to release the tax revenue currently held by Israel but owed to the Palestinian Authority,” according to a statement released by Ban’s spokesperson.

“The secretary-general reiterated his view that the two-state solution was the only way forward and urged the prime minister to renew Israel’s commitment to that goal,” the statement read.

In the last days of the Israeli election campaign, Netanyahu made a series of remarks that seemed to indicate a rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state, comments he’s since backtracked from.

The statements angered the Obama administration and the president told Netanyahu during their call that the US was reassessing its approach to Israeli-Palestinian peace, a White House official said. The White House had swiftly dismissed Netanyahu’s new, more moderate comments to US media.

The White House official said Obama also raised Netanyahu’s critical comments about Israeli Arabs voting in disproportionately high numbers on election day, which the administration has denounced as a “cynical” effort to mobilize voters.

Asked whether the subject came up in the phone call, the official said, “In his phone call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, the president made the same points in private that the administration has been making in public.”

Obama also addressed negotiations with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program and said he was focused on a deal that would prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu has been a vocal critic of Obama’s diplomatic outreach to Iran.

According to the White House, Obama “emphasized the importance the United States places on our close military, intelligence and security cooperation with Israel, which reflects the deep and abiding partnership between both countries.”

The two leaders “agreed to continue consultations on a range of regional issues, including the difficult path forward to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Some pundits had seen a delay in Obama calling Netanyahu as a sign of poor ties between the two.

On Thursday, spokespeople in the White House and State Department indicated the US would re-evaluate its approach to the peace process and its support for Israel in the United Nations in the wake of Netanyahu’s comments.

Netanyahu’s Likud party swept the national elections on Tuesday, taking nearly 25% of the vote, winning 30 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.

The landslide victory over the Zionist Union, which won 24 seats, places Netanyahu in a secure position to form a governing coalition.

Ties between Netanyahu and Obama reached historic lows earlier this month with the Israeli prime minister’s speech before a joint session of Congress in Washington in which he criticized a developing nuclear deal with Iran. The address was coordinated over the head of the White House, to the ire of Obama.