Obama warns Trump against ‘sudden unilateral moves’ on Israel and Palestine

In his last news conference, the president said the 'moment may be passing' for a two-state solution to the conflict, pushing back on criticism over his recent move to put pressure on Israel over settlement-building

US president Barack Obama waves as he departs the briefing room at the end of his final press conference at the White House on January 18, 2017. Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

WASHINGTON // US president Barack Obama warned his successor Donald Trump on Wednesday against any “sudden, unilateral moves” on Israel and Palestine, in an apparent reference to the president-elect’s plan to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“The president-elect will have his own policy,” Mr Obama told his final news conference, two days before leaving office.

“But obviously it’s a volatile environment. What we have seen in the past is when some unilateral moves are made that speak to some of the core issues and sensitivities of either side, that can be explosive.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Nikki Haley, nominated to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations, told senators she supports Mr Trump’s plan to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

“Not only is that what Israel wants, but that is what this congress has said that is what they support,” said the 44 year-old governor of South Carolina.

Taking questions on many topics at the news conference, Mr Obama said the “moment may be passing” for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, pushing back on criticism over his recent move to put pressure on Israel over settlement-building.

“If you do not have two states, then in some form or fashion you are extending an occupation,” he added.

On the subject of the president-elect, Mr Obama said he reserves the right to speak out as ex-president if Mr Trump violates America’s “core values.”

Also at the conference, Mr Obama firmly defended his decision to cut nearly three decades off convicted leaker Chelsea Manning’s prison term, arguing the former army intelligence analyst had served a “tough prison sentence” already.

Mr Obama said he granted clemency to Manning because she had gone to trial, taken responsibility for her crime and received a sentence that was harsher than other leakers had received. He emphasised that he had merely commuted her sentence, not granted a pardon, which would have symbolically forgiven her for the crime.

“I feel very comfortable that justice has been served,” Mr Obama said.

Manning was convicted in 2013 of violating the Espionage Act and other crimes for leaking more than 700,000 classified documents while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad. Formerly known as Bradley Manning, she declared as transgender after being sentenced to 35 years in prison. She had served more than six years before Mr Obama commuted her sentence on Tuesday, with a release date set for May.

“The notion that the average person who was thinking about disclosing vital, classified information would think that it goes unpunished, I don’t think would get that impression from the sentence that Chelsea Manning has served,” the president added.

Reflecting on his legacy as the first black president, Mr Obama also disputed the notion that race relations had worsened. And he dismissed as “fake news” the idea there is widespread voter fraud in the United States – a notion Democrats say is used to justify restrictions which make it harder for African-Americans to vote.

Mr Obama’s defence of controversial decisions came as he prepares to exit the presidency after eight years marked by major victories on health care, the economy and climate change, along with disappointments over his inability to achieve his goals on immigration, gun control and closing the Guantanamo Bay prison. He wound down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but wrestled with other security threats posed by ISIL and the Syria civil war which he was unable to resolve.

Even many of Mr Obama’s proudest achievements, like the “ObamaCare” health care overhaul, stand to be rolled back or undermined by Mr Trump, a shadow that hangs over the president’s legacy as he leaves office. The formal end comes on Friday when the two men will motorcade together to the Capitol in Washington, DC, for Mr Trump’s swearing-in before Mr Obama flies with his family to California for a holiday.

* Agence France-Presse, Associated Press