In an exclusive interview with Reuters, U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed his support for Israel while speaking out against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled Iran speech before Congress.
The Obama administration is very upset that the Israeli leader will speak before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday on the Iranian nuclear talks and the security of Israel.
The Obama White House reportedly told Black Caucus members to boycott Netanyahu’s speech.
34 Democrats are going to boycott the speech.
Today Obama said:
I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu is sincere about his concerns with respect to Iran. And given Iran’s rhetoric, given the extraordinarily destructive and dangerous activities of this regime in the region, it’s understandable why Israel is very concerned about Iran. We are too… As a matter of policy we think it’s a mistake for the prime minister of any country to come to speak before Congress a few weeks before they are about to have an election. It makes it look like we are taking sides. I don’t think it’s permanently destructive. I think it is a distraction from what should be our focus.