Report: Netanyahu rejected Kerry visit after election win

An Israeli media report on Sunday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Secretary of State John Kerry’s request for a visit following his reelection last month.

{mosads}Kerry proposed travel to the Jewish nation immediately after Netanyahu’s victory on March 17, according to Israel’s Channel 2.

Netanyahu instead suggested Kerry come after he has formed a new coalition government. The reelected Prime Minister is still in the process of negotiating a final alliance with other Israeli lawmakers.

Netanyahu’s office did not respond a request for comment from The Jerusalem Post Sunday evening.

The rumored slight comes amid simmering tensions between the Israeli leader and President Obama.

The two leaders have clashed over Obama’s tentative pact with Iran on its nuclear arms research. Kerry on Sunday tried defusing Israeli concerns over the draft accord.

“I say to every Israeli that today we have the ability to stop them if they decided to move quickly to a bomb and I absolutely guarantee that in the future we will have the ability to know what they are doing so that we can still stop them if they decided to move to a bomb,” Kerry said, according to The Associated Press.

Obama has argued that such diplomacy is the best method for preventing a Tehran armed with atomic weapons.

Netanyahu has countered that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is untrustworthy and that a nuclear Iran threatens his nation’s existence.

Kerry negotiated the framework agreement with Iranian leadership announced on April 2.

It would lift economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for greater restrictions on its nuclear energy capabilities.

Iran has vowed it will allow more frequent atomic inspections and caps on its centrifuge and uranium stockpiles as part of the deal.

The Obama administration additionally criticized Netanyahu last month for his campaign rhetoric refusing the creation of a Palestinian state.

The president is a strong supporter of a two-state solution for lasting Middle East peace.