Obama says he has ‘differences on Iran‘ with PM but also ‘coordination‘

WASHINGTON — President Obama was asked about Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to the US during a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and said: “I talk to him all the time. Our teams constantly coordinate. We have a practice of not meeting with leaders right before their elections, two weeks before their elections. As much as I love Angela, if she was two weeks away from an election, she probably would not have received an invitation to the White House, and I suspect she would not have asked for one.

US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hold a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, February 9, 2015. (photo credit: Saul Loeb/AFP) — US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hold a joint press conference in the White House in Washington, DC, February 9, 2015. (photo credit: AFP/Saul Loeb)

“So some of this just has to do with how we do business. I think it’s important for us to maintain these protocols because the US-Israeli relationship is not about a particular party. This isn’t a relationship founded on an affinity between the Labor Party and the Democratic Party, or Likud and the Republican Party. This is the US-Israeli relationship that extends beyond parties.

“It has to do with that unbreakable bond that we feel and our commitment to Israel’s security and the shared values that we have.

“The way to preserve that is to ensure that it doesn’t get clouded by what could be perceived as partisan politics…. That’s something we have to guard against.

“I don’t want to be coy. The prime minister and I have a very real difference around Iran, around sanctions.” He said Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron and he agree “that it does not make sense to sour the negotiations a month or two before they’re about to be complete. And we should play that out.”