WASHINGTON — The White House said on Thursday that President Obama would not meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel when he comes here in March to speak to a joint session of Congress and to lobby for new sanctions on Iran that Mr. Obama opposes, the latest twist in a dispute that has marked a new low in relations between the two leaders and which now threatens the chances of a nuclear deal with Tehran.
The White House statement came after Mr. Netanyahu, apparently sensing that he had committed a major diplomatic blunder, rescheduled a commitment he made to speak to Congress next month without first coordinating his visit with the White House. The House speaker, John A. Boehner, had extended the invitation to highlight Mr. Netanyahu’s support for the Republican effort to enact a new round of sanctions against Iran that Mr. Obama has threatened to veto, and to bolster the critique that the president’s approach to the Middle East has not been forceful enough.
Mr. Obama “has been clear about his opposition to Congress passing new legislation on Iran that could undermine our negotiations and divide the international community,” Bernadette Meehan, the spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said after the White House announced that the president would not be meeting with Mr. Netanyahu on his visit because of a longstanding policy of not seeing foreign leaders too close to their national elections — a rule that is often ignored when critical issues are on the agenda.
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Gilad Erdan, a minister who is close to Mr. Netanyahu, tried to tamp down the crisis, telling a radio interviewer that “relations are not bad” between Israel and the United States.
“What there is, is disagreements,” he said. “People and leaders have opinions.”
David E. Sanger and Michael D. Shear reported from Washington, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem. Julie Hirschfeld Davis contributed reporting from Lawrence, Kan.
