BICOM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled speech to the US Congress on March 3 continued to dominate headlines after a Reuters report yesterday suggested that Mr Netanyahu was considering “changes” to the controversial plan.

The Reuters report claimed that Israeli officials were considering making the speech a private event to Congress without TV cameras, or for Mr Netanyahu to make his Iran plea during his planned speech to AIPAC’s Policy Conference. A source close to the Prime Minister’s Office told Reuters that “[Netanyahu] is discussing it with Likud people. Some say he should give up on the speech, others that he should go through with it.”

However, at a Likud Party campaign event last night for Russian-speaking supporters, Mr Netanyahu said he was “determined to go to Washington to present Israel’s position to the members of Congress and the American people”. He also tweeted that “At a time when there are those who would deal with protocol and politics, an agreement with Iran is taking shape in Munich that would risk Israel’s existence”.

Nevertheless, some observers believe the earlier report was a trial balloon and that the planned talk may eventually be reconfigured in some way.

Criticism of Mr Netanyahu’s decision continued in Washington yesterday. At a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US President Barack Obama said “As much as I love Angela, if she was two weeks away from an election, she probably would not have received an invitation from the White House…And I suspect she wouldn’t have asked for one.” Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders became the latest to say he wouldn’t attend the speech.

Israel remains concerned about the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 countries, believing that any proposal will likely be a “bad deal” that would not stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons threshold status. Mr Netanyahu believes that continued US sanctions would force Iran to sign a more favourable deal in the future. The nuclear negotiations continue.