A Republican lawmaker threatened Sunday to block the confirmations of President Barack Obama's nominees for defense secretary and CIA director over the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya.

Senator Lindsay Graham said he would put a "hold" on the nominations of Chuck Hagel and John Brennan until the White House provided more information about the president's actions during the September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Iran's nuclear ambitions, Syria and the peace process with the Palestinians will top U.S. President Barack Obama's agenda on his upcoming visit to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Last week, the White House said Obama would make his first visit to Israel as president on a trip likely to take place next month. It would also include stops in the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

He's hardly best buddies with Benjamin Netanyahu and his drive for a Palestinian state is comatose, so why did Barack Obama pick Israel to fire up his legacy-boosting second term diplomacy?

The U.S. president sprung a surprise last week by announcing he would pick the turmoil-laced Middle East for the first trip since re-election.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he believes Turkey's efforts to try to resolve the three-decade conflict with Kurdish rebels will lead to "real progress," according to remarks published in a Turkish newspaper on Sunday.

"I applaud Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan's efforts to seek a peaceful resolution to a struggle that has caused so much pain and sorrow," he told the Milliyet newspaper, referring to negotiations launched last year between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Congress Saturday to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction, warning that steep budget cuts known as "the sequester" would hurt the economy and threaten thousands of American jobs.

"If the sequester is allowed to go forward, thousands of Americans who work in fields like national security, education or clean energy are likely to be laid off," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Barack Obama could hold a three-way summit during the U.S. president's upcoming visit, Israel's deputy foreign minister said on Saturday.

"During the visit of President Obama, a three-way summit could take place or even four-way with King Abdullah II of Jordan," Danny Ayalon said, quoted by Israeli army radio.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday acknowledged for the first time that the Pentagon had backed proposals to arm the Syrian opposition battling to oust President Bashar Assad.

The idea -- ultimately rejected -- was first floated by then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who met privately with David Petraeus, CIA chief at the time, in the summer of 2012 as fighting raged in Syria.

President Barack Obama said Thursday that the beliefs of U.S. gun owners should be respected, but warned measures must be taken to ensure hundreds or thousands more children are not shot and killed.

Obama, speaking to a conference of House of Representatives Democrats, pledged to keep campaigning for a package of measures designed to stem gun violence which were drawn up after the Newtown school massacre last year.

The hard-nosed architect of the U.S. drone war against al-Qaida, John Brennan, will face tough questions about secret assassinations Thursday from senators weighing his nomination to lead the CIA.

The confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee promises to focus a rare public spotlight on President Barack Obama's covert campaign to hunt down al-Qaida suspects worldwide in drone bombing raids.

U.S. President Barack Obama does not plan to use his coming trip to Israel to advance new proposals to break open the deadlock in peace talks with the Palestinians, the White House said Wednesday.

Obama will visit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time as president as soon as next month on a trip that also includes stops in the Palestinian territories and Jordan.