White House and Netanyahu Are Set to Make Dueling Cases in Washington

WASHINGTON — President Obama and two of his top national security officials will make their case publicly on Monday for a diplomatic agreement with Iran to prevent that nation from acquiring a nuclear weapon, one day before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is to address Congress to denounce such a deal.

The president has scheduled an interview with Reuters for Monday afternoon, the same day that Susan E. Rice, his national security adviser, and Samantha Power, his ambassador to the United Nations, will address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at its policy conference here.

“What you’re going to see is a very, very deep disagreement over policy by an American government led by President Obama and an Israeli government for now led by Netanyahu,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of the Democratic-aligned and pro-Israel group J Street. He said that divide was “only going to get worse if an agreement is struck with Iran, and then you’re in a very serious clash between the two countries.”

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The New York Times