Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Mideast envoy George Mitchell have arrived in Israel for a new round of talks with the Israeli government. National Security Adviser James Jones and Special Mideast Adviser Dennis Ross head to Israel in the coming days. Gates’s visit was partially aimed at dissuading Israel from taking any military action against Iran and buying time for US diplomacy to bear fruit.
Gates said he hopes Iran will respond by September to the Obama administration’s offer for talks on its nuclear program.

Robert Gates: “The President has been quite clear that this is not an open-ended offer to engage. We’re very mindful of the possibility that the Iranians would simply try to run out the clock. I think that the President is certainly anticipating or hoping for some kind of response this fall, perhaps by the time of the UN General Assembly.”

After meeting with Gates, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak refused to rule out an Israeli attack on Iran.

Ehud Barak: “We clearly believe that no option should be removed from the table. This is our policy. We mean it. We recommend to others to take the same position, but we cannot dictate it to anyone.”

The Obama administration and Israel are also said to be close to a deal on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Washington will reportedly allow some settlement projects in advanced stages of construction to be completed, but Israel would freeze all other building for an as-yet-undetermined period of time. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has revealed that more than 300,000 Jewish residents now live in settlements in the West Bank, an increase of 2.3 percent since January.