President Obama will not meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
of Israel when he travels to Washington in March to address a joint
session of Congress, the White House said on Thursday, citing a policy
against receiving foreign leaders close to their elections.
Read more: White House, Citing Israeli Election, Says Obama and Netanyahu Won’t Meet - NYTimes.com
“As
a matter of longstanding practice and principle, we do not see heads of
state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to
avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign
country,” Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security
Council, said in a statement.
“Accordingly, the president will not be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu because of the proximity to the Israeli election, which is just two weeks after his planned address to the U.S. Congress.”
“Accordingly, the president will not be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu because of the proximity to the Israeli election, which is just two weeks after his planned address to the U.S. Congress.”
The
decision to keep the Israeli leader at arm’s length when he visits this
spring comes as Mr. Obama is clashing with lawmakers in Congress over a
bid to pass legislation that would impose new sanctions on Iran if
talks aimed at preventing the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon
fail.
Read more: White House, Citing Israeli Election, Says Obama and Netanyahu Won’t Meet - NYTimes.com
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