Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - US President Barack Obama said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pre-election disavowal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict makes it "hard to find a path" toward serious negotiations to resolve the issue.

In an interview with Huffington Post, Obama said, he spoke with Netanyahu over the phone on Thursday, two days after the Israeli leader was re-elected.

During the interview Obama criticized Netanyahu's remarks about Palestinian voters within the Green Line, making clear that the deep rift in relations between Israel and the United States, its most important ally, is not ending anytime soon.

"I did indicate to him that we continue to believe that a two-state solution is the only way for the long-term security of Israel, if it wants to stay both a Jewish state and democratic," Obama said, in his first public comments on the issue.

"And I indicated to him that given his statements prior to the election, it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible", Obama said.

He revealed that the U.S. will evaluate other options for establishing peace between the Israelis and Palestinians as a result of Netanyahu's rejection of longstanding U.S. policy.

Obama's administration previously sponsored talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state that would exist peacefully side-by-side with Israel. But these talks failed.