The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations told the main U.S. pro-Israeli lobbying group AIPAC on Monday that the U.S.-Israel relationship transcends politics “and it always will.”
Ambassador Samantha Power addressed the group shortly before a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose fierce criticism of President Barack Obama's drive to reach an Iran nuclear deal has created tensions in U.S.-Israel ties.
Senior U.S. officials have said the politics surrounding a speech by Netanyahu to the U.S. Congress scheduled for Tuesday threaten to damage the U.S.-Israel relationship, one of the United States' closest alliances.
Power drew a distinction, however, between politics and U.S. policy.
“We believe firmly that Israel's security and the U.S-Israel partnership transcends politics, and it always will,” she said, adding that the United States would take whatever steps were needed to protect its allies.
She repeated Obama's frequent statement that the United States would not allow a nuclear-armed Iran. Netanyahu, and Republican U.S. politicians who control Congress, have expressed deep skepticism that the deal the Obama administration is now negotiating with Iran will stop Tehran from obtaining the bomb.
