Top US lawmaker defends controversial Netanyahu invitation

The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner on Sunday cited bad blood between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the reason behind the fact that he did not inform the White House before inviting Netanyahu to address Congress in March.

In an interview aired on Fox News Sunday, Boehner explained he did not want Obama's animosity towards Netanyahu to be an interference to his invitation.

"There's no secret here in Washington about the animosity that this White House has for Prime Minister Netanyahu," said Boehner. "I frankly didn't want them getting in the way and quashing what I thought was a real opportunity."

"We have every right to do what we did. I wanted the Prime Minister to come here," Boehner said.

Tensions between Obama and Netanyahu stem mainly from Obama's Middle East initiatives, including Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and Iranian nuclear negotiations.

The simmering feud between Obama and Netanyahu was made worse after Boehner last month invited Netanyahu to deliver a speech on March 3 about Iranian nuclear issues before Congress without prior consultation with the White House, a move the Obama administration criticized as "a departure from protocol."

Shortly after Boehner announced his invitation, the White House said that Obama would not meet with Netanyahu, citing a long- standing tradition of not meeting with other state leaders prior to their national elections.

Netanyahu, who vocally supported the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Obama's reelection bid in 2012, will face his own reelection on March 17.

In so far one of his sharpest rebukes of Netanyahu's decision to address Congress without first notifying the White House of his visit, Obama said on Feb. 9 during his joint press conference with visiting Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel that Merkel would have never put him in a similar situation.

"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," Obama said.

The disputes over Netanyahu's visit came at a time when the Republican-controlled Congress is grappling with the White House over a new bipartisan bill that would impose tougher sanctions on Iran if the nuclear talks fail to yield results.

Obama said repeatedly on several occasions that he would veto any sanction bill sent to his desk. However, he recently ruled out the possibility of further extending the ongoing nuclear talks, which will expire on June 30.

Meanwhile, several top Democratic lawmakers in Congress have recently said that they would boycott the speech by Netanyahu, one of the prominent opponents to the current nuclear negotiations with Iran.

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