Netanyahu says Kerry has no reason to come to Israel

Rasa - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Secretary of State John Kerry has no reason to visit Israel after it emerged that the top US diplomat would skip Tel Aviv in his tour of the Middle East.

News ID: 3043

Date: 29 July 2015 - 23:58

RNA - Kerry will visit Egypt on Sunday and then Qatar before heading to East Asia, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

The omission is viewed as a snub since Kerry’s tour is part of a broader campaign to ease the concerns of regional allies over the nuclear agreement with Iran.

“He really has no reason to come here,” Netanyahu told reporters in cynical remarks, Israel’s Army Radio reports.

The agreement with Iran “has nothing to do with us, and has no influence on us,” the Israeli premier said. “We’re not at the table; we are one of the courses on the menu itself.”

The White House has also launched an aggressive campaign on Capitol Hill in an effort to sell the nuclear accord to congressional skeptics, who have until September 17 to review and potentially vote down the accord.

In remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on Friday, Kerry suggested that if Congress rejects the Iran agreement, the world would hold Israel responsible because of its extensive campaign against it.

“I fear that what could happen is if Congress were to overturn it, our friends Israel could actually wind up being more isolated and more blamed,” Kerry said.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the biggest Israeli lobby group in the US, is deploying hundreds of lobbyists on Capitol Hill to try to convince lawmakers to vote against the nuclear agreement.

AIPAC, along with some other pro-Israel advocacy groups, will spend approximately $20 million to fund a national television advertising campaign to inform the public “about the dangers of the proposed Iran deal,” according to officials in the pro-Israel camp.

US President Barack Obama has vowed to veto any congressional resolution seeking to reject the nuclear agreement with Iran, seen as the most significant foreign policy achievement of his presidency.

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