Obama will not meet US-bound Netanyahu: White House

President Barack Obama will not meet the Israeli prime minster when he visits the United States in March.

The White House announced Thursday that Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama will not meet amid the administration’s clashes with a Republican-led Congress, specifically over new sanctions against Iran.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday invited Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress next month, an invitation the White House called a “departure from protocol.”

"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," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.

Hours after Obama threatened to veto any Iran sanctions bill during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Boehner said he had invited Netanyahu to address the issue.

Officials however said the two leaders would not meet because of Israel’s upcoming elections.

Israeli elections why Obama will not see Netanyahu

National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said it was a "matter of long-standing practice and principle" that the president would not meet incumbent leaders while they are facing an election.

Netanyahu is hoping for re-election on March 17, two weeks after his scheduled visit to Washington.

"The president will not be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu because of the proximity to the Israeli election," said Meehan.

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 not to interfere with negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu on Thursday also tried to brush off the diplomatic rift between the two allies and said his speech in Congress would be an opportunity for him to "thank President Barack Obama, the Congress and the American people for their support of Israel."

The US and its European allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iran based on the unfounded accusation that Tehran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Despite Obama’s veto threat, American lawmakers are pressing ahead with new sanctions legislation.

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and Senator Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, are drafting new sanctions legislation as Iran and the P5+1 group are negotiating to reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement.

Nuclear negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 group – the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – wrapped up their latest round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear energy program in Geneva on December 17, 2014.

The two sides agreed to extend their discussions for seven more months until July 1, 2015. They also agreed that the interim deal they had signed in Geneva in November 2013 should remain in place during the course of the negotiations.

AN/HRJ

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