Israel’s Channel 2 reported that due to President Obama’s disdain for PM Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress, the US will cease updating Israel about US-Iran nuclear negotiations. US officials denied the report.
The US administration under President Barack Obama has stopped updating Israel on the progress of talks with Iran over that country’s nuclear program, in retaliation for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s intention to speak in Congress March 3 at the invitation of Republican Speaker John Boehner.
According to Israel’s Channel 2, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, who is in charge of the nuclear talks with Iran, said she is no longer briefing Israel about the talks, because the Israeli government is using the information in a manipulative and political way.
Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, has also announced that she is cutting off contact with her Israeli counterpart, Yossi Cohen, because Israel has turned an international security issue to a political one, and is using it to influence internal US politics, reported Channel 2.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in response that “the strategic relations between the countries are deep” and that Cohen will be meeting both Sherman and Rice in Washington later in the week.
US Administration officials denied the report. US National Security Council spokesperson Alistair Baskey reportedly said the US will continue its “frequent and routine contact at various professional levels within the intelligence, military, and diplomatic spheres.”
Source: Israel National News