White House disputes reports that it could not find a suitable date for Israeli PM, in a sign of tensions between two leaders

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu turned down the offer of a meeting with president Barack Obama, prompting a sharp response from the White House, in the latest evidence of the tense relations between the two leaders.



The abrupt decision by Netanyahu to cancel a visit to Washington later this month surprised US officials, who said they learned of the cancellation via the media.

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The White House additionally disputed reports in the Israeli media that said Netanyahu cancelled the trip after the White House had been unable to find a date for a meeting that worked with Obama’s schedule, saying those suggestions were “false”.

The latest friction between Netanyahu and Obama – who have had a tense relationship, not least over the issue of Iran – came ahead of a visit by vice-president Joe Biden to Israel, when the issue of US military aid to the country is expected to be on the agenda.

Netanyahu had been expected to visit the US in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israeli group’s annual summit.

The White House said Israel had proposed two dates for a meeting between the leaders and the US had offered to meet on one of those days.

“We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting,” said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House’s national security council.

“We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit.”

The unusually pointed pushback from the White House was the latest signal of ongoing tensions between the US and its closest Middle Eastern ally, which have never fully recovered since Obama incensed Netanyahu’s government by pursuing and then enacting a nuclear deal with Iran.

A statement later issued by the prime minister’s office said that while Netanyahu “appreciated Obama’s willingness to meet him”, he decided “not to go to Washington at this time, at the height of the primary election campaigns in the United States”. Sources in Netanyahu’s office briefed that a continued disagreement over the size of a new US defence aid deal was also a factor.

The US is offering an increase in military aid to Israel of around $5bn over a decade, while Israel is seeking $10bn to $15bn more.

This was not the first time Obama had been caught off guard by Netanyahu’s travel plans. Last year, the White House accused him of a breach of longstanding diplomatic protocol when he announced plans to speak to a joint session of Congress without consulting or notifying the president.

Netanyahu used that speech to implore US lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel sees as emboldening its arch enemy.

Israel and the United States have been seeking to move past deep disagreement over the Iran nuclear accord and work out a new 10-year defence aid package.

The current deal gives Israel some $3.1bn annually, in addition to spending on other projects such as missile defence.

However, Israeli officials have made clear they had been hoping for a more generous deal than the one currently on offer, suggesting they would prefer to wait until a new president is elected to sign off on it.

Biden’s trip, due to begin on Tuesday, comes amid a five-month wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories that has killed 181 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

Biden will meet Netanyahu and later in the day he will travel to Ramallah to meet the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

The White House said on Friday that Biden would not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit.

Obama has acknowledged that there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

His administration’s tough criticism of Israeli settlement-building in the occupied West Bank has added to tensions between the two longstanding allies.