Russian TV: US President Obama will meet with both the America-Israel Political Action Committee and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu this week; with Jerusalem and Washington at odds over Iran, however, that issue is likely be the only one up for discussion.
There will be a heavy Israeli presence in Washington this week with US President Barack Obama scheduling conferences with both AIPAC leaders and Israel PM Netanyahu. Those engagements for Obama will bookend the annual AIPAC conference in the US capital, but this year’s meetings could not have come at more unusual time as tensions between the two nations are at their worst in decades.
Notwithstanding a strong and consistently controversial alliance, both the US and Israel are currently disputing the issue of Iran and how a rumored nuclear program there could put a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of Tehran. Despite urging from Israel to preemptively act on Iran before they can procure a nuclear warhead for themselves, the US has remained hesitant to use force on Tehran. For now, Obama has relied on words, warnings and sanctions to scare Iran away from any program that could put a nuke overseas. Israel, however, has repeatedly asked America to act on Iran before events escalate any further. As the zero hour approaches over a rumored Iranian nuke, this weekend’s talks are expected to almost exclusively serve as a preemptive war room roundtable.