AIPAC official: Netanyahu’s Congress speech harmed Israel's interests

An official from the largest Israel lobby in the US has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of harming the opposition to the final nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.

The official from the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said on Thursday that Netanyahu’s insisting on addressing the US Congress earlier this year turned the Iran nuclear issue into a partisan one.  

“Netanyahu’s speech in Congress made the Iranian issue a partisan one,” the AIPAC official told Israel’s Walla news.

“As soon as he insisted on going ahead with this move, which was perceived as a Republican maneuver against the president, we lost a significant part of the Democratic Party, without which it was impossible to block the agreement,” added the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He made the comments a day after Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski announced that she would support the nuclear deal reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries – the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany – in Vienna in July.

Democrats need 34 votes in the Senate, or 146 in the House of Representatives, to sustain the veto President Obama has promised. Mikulski’s announcement means Democrats will now have 34 votes to protect the nuclear agreement in Congress.

According to the official, AIPAC and Democratic senators had raised these concerns with the Israeli prime minister before his visit to the US Capitol.

“A few weeks before Netanyahu’s speech in Congress, Democratic senators implored him to cancel, saying it was inappropriate for the Israeli prime minister to work like this behind the back of the president of the United States,” the official said.

“Instead of the speech, they proposed that he come to Washington and meet with them behind closed doors, without the TV cameras, so he could explain his position on the Iranian issue,” he revealed.

“A lot of people here think that if Netanyahu had accepted their offer, it would have improved our chances [to sabotage the agreement],” the official noted.

On March 3, Netanyahu, on the Republican invitation, addressed a joint session of the US Congress, where he ranted for nearly 40 minutes against the Iran nuclear talks, warning Washington that it was negotiating a “bad deal” with the Islamic Republic.

The invitation to Netanyahu was extended by Republicans without consultation with the White House, drawing angry reaction from the Obama administration, which called it a breach of protocol. 

AIPAC has been at the forefront of the campaign against the final nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1. It had launched a massive campaign to defeat the historic accord in the Republican-dominated Congress, which is reviewing it and is expected to vote on it next week.

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