Netanyahu told Biden in private phone call he was not foreclosing the possibility of a Palestinian state in any form

Washington CNN —

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained to President Joe Biden in a phone call Friday that the public comments he made a day earlier — in which he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state — were not meant to foreclose that outcome in any form, a person familiar with the conversation told CNN.

Biden and Netanyahu discussed the possible attributes of a future Palestinian state that would ultimately need to be negotiated, the person added, describing the conversation as “serious” and “detailed.”

Biden administration officials have recently been engaged in discussions about a future demilitarized Palestinian state, an idea the president finds “intriguing,” the person said.

Biden is certainly familiar with the ideas of a demilitarized Palestinian state or one with a significantly limited military force that have been discussed over the years, one administration official said. And those are among the schools of thought that inform the president’s thinking as he pushes for a two-state solution with a security guarantee for Israel, the official added.

Hours after getting off the phone with Netanyahu, Biden made reference to that possibility when speaking to reporters at the White House, saying he believed “there are a number of types of two-state solutions.”

“There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that … don’t have their own military; a number of states that have limitations, and so I think there’s ways in which this can work,” Biden said.

He was less clear exactly how he would achieve it.

“I’ll let you know when I get him to agree,” Biden told reporters.

Mark Regev, Netanyahu’s senior adviser, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Saturday that