Israeli Ambassador: Netanyahu Address to Congress on Iran Deal Worth Price of Ties With Obama

posted on: Feb 17, 2015

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s effort to influence the nuclear negotiations with Iran by addressing Congress is worth the price Israel will pay in its relations with the U.S. administration, Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer has told Israeli envoys working in America.

Dermer made the argument at a meeting in Jerusalem last Wednesday with the heads of Israel’s consulates in North America.

Three Israeli diplomats, some of whom were briefed subsequently on the details of the meeting, told Haaretz that Dermer tried to downplay the crisis with President Barack Obama’s administration. He admitted that Israel would pay a price for Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, they said, but denied that this would deal a mortal blow to the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

“There have been such things in the past; you shouldn’t blow this out of proportion,” one diplomat quoted Dermer as saying. “It’s possible to isolate the current dispute from the totality of our relations with the U.S.”

Source: www.haaretz.com