With Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu facing growing calls to cancel his speech to Congress, President Obama continued to criticize the trip to Washington as a breach of protocol and lay out his differences with the Israeli leader on the Iranian nuclear issue.
“We have a practice of not meeting with leaders right before their elections — two weeks before their elections,” Obama said Monday during a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“As much as I love Angela, if she was two weeks away from an election, she probably would not have received an invitation to the White House, and I suspect she wouldn’t have asked for one,” he said to laughter.
House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu to speak to Congress on Iran and its nuclear program in early March remains a flashpoint between Israel and U.S. relations. Boehner did not consult Obama or any White House officials before sending the invitation, a rare move and a sign of the enduring divisions between Obama and Republicans in Congress.
Netanyahu will face Israeli voters in March, and his rivals have ratcheted up criticism of the Washington visit in recent weeks, accusing him of risking Israel’s relations with the United States and trying to win extra votes in the parliamentary election.
Obama used a question at Monday morning’s press conference about the Netanyahu visit as an opportunity to expand on the differences he has with the Israeli prime minister on Iran.
“Now, I don’t want to be coy,” he said. “The prime minister and I have a very real difference around Iran — Iran’s sanctions.”
“It does not make sense to sour the negotiations [with Tehran] a month or two before they’re about to be completed, and we should play that out,” he said, citing support from Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron. “In fact, if we can get a deal, we should embrace that.”
If talks ultimately fail, Obama said he would be the first to call on Congress to impose even harsher sanctions against Iran.
“But what’s the rush? Unless your view is that it’s not possible to get a deal with Iran and it shouldn’t even be tested,” he added.
Over the past year, Netanyahu has spoken out against the pace and thrust of the negotiations with Tehran.
Netanyahu argues that Iran is the single greatest threat to Israel and says its nuclear program must be dismantled, not simply halted. Israel’s long and vocal concern about Iran’s nuclear weapons has helped focus world attention on the issue, as well as build support for international sanctions against Iran.
Showing no signs of backing down, Netanyahu has said he will do everything in his power to prevent the U.S. from reaching a bad deal with Tehran.
Critics of the Washington visit and speech to Congress, scheduled for March 3, worry that the remarks could disrupt the negotiations with Iran. Several Democrats have said they are boycotting the speech, while others, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have asked Netanyahu to postpone it.
