White House: Netanyahu trip will be departure from protocol
The White House has reacted to news that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited by US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner to address Congress next month, saying it would be a departure from protocol.
Hours after US President Barack Obama threatened to veto any Iran sanctions bill during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, invited Netanyahu to Congress to speak about the so-called threat from Iran, as part of spurning of Obama.
The invitation to address Congress, extended without having consultations with the White House and the State Department, marks a sharp rejection of Obama’s plea for the new Republican-dominated Congress to stay out of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
"We haven't heard from the Israelis directly about the trip at all," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.
"The typical protocol would suggest that the leader of a country would contact the leader of another country when he is travelling there. That is certainly how President Obama's trips are planned," he said. "So this particular event seems to be a departure from that protocol."
Earnest said the White House would "reserve judgment" on any possibility of a meeting between Obama and Netanyahu.
During his sixth State of the Union speech, Obama warned Congress that any measures to impose new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program would result in the failure of US diplomacy.
A bipartisan group of US senators is pushing a new round of sanctions on Iran and could be part of the Senate’s agenda in coming weeks.
Iran and the P5+1 states - the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany - are making intensive efforts to narrow their differences and pave the way for a final, long-term accord aimed at putting an end to the 12-year-old dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.
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