WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States and Israel showed signs of seeking to defuse tensions on Sunday ahead of a speech in Washington by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu when he will warn against a possible nuclear deal with Iran. 
 
 Policy differences over the negotiations with Iran remained firm, however, as Netanyahu set off for the United States to deliver the speech, which has imperiled ties between the two allies. 
 
 Israel fears that U.S. President Barack Obama’s Iran diplomacy, with an end-of-March deadline for a framework accord, will allow its arch foe to develop atomic weapons — something Tehran denies seeking. 
 
 By accepting an invitation from the Republican party to address Congress on Tuesday, the Israeli leader infuriated the Obama administration, which said it was not told of the speech before plans were made public in an apparent breach of protocol. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated Washington’s determination to pursue negotiations with Iran, saying on Sunday the United States deserved “the benefit of the doubt” to see if a nuclear deal could be reached. 
 
 Last week, Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, said the partisanship caused by Netanyahu’s looming address was “destructive to the fabric of U.S.-Israeli ties”. 
 
 Asked about this on the ABC program “This Week”, Kerry said “the prime minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously. And we have a closer relationship with Israel right now in terms of security than at any time in history.” 
 
 He said he had talked to Netanyahu on Saturday, adding, “we don’t want to see this turned into some great political football.” Israel and the United States agreed that the main goal was to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, he said. 
 
 In remarks on Saturday at Jersualem’s Western Wall, Netanyahu said: “I would like to take this opportunity to say that I respect U.S. President Barack Obama.” He added that he believed in the strong bilateral ties and said, “that strength will prevail over differences of opinion, those in the past and those yet to come.” 
 
 Netanyahu did not repeat those remarks as he departed on Sunday. The Israeli prime minister, who is running for re-election in a March 17 ballot, has framed his visit as being above politics and he portrayed himself as being a guardian for all Jews. 
 
 “I’m going to Washington on a fateful, even historic, mission,” he said as he boarded his plane in Tel Aviv. “I feel that I am an emissary of all Israel’s citizens, even those who do not agree with me, and of the entire Jewish people,” he told reporters. 
 
 Netanyahu is expected to use his speech to urge Congress to approve new sanctions against Iran despite Obama’s pledge to veto such legislation because it would jeopardize nuclear talks. 
 
 U.S. officials fear he is seeking to sabotage the Iran diplomacy, and critics have suggested his visit is an elaborate election stunt that will play well with voters back home. 
 
 With Obama past the mid-point of his final term, his aides see an Iran nuclear deal as a potential signature achievement for a foreign policy legacy notably short on major successes. 
 
 While White House and Israeli officials insist that key areas of cooperation, from counter-terrorism to intelligence to cyber security, will remain unaffected, the divide over the Iran talks has shaped up as the worst in decades. 
 
 Previously Israel has always been careful to navigate between the Republican and Democratic camps. The planned address, however, has driven a rare wedge between Netanyahu’s government and some congressional Democrats. Some two dozen or more of them plan to boycott the speech, according to unofficial estimates. 
 
 IRANIAN ACCUSATION 
 
 Speaking in Tehran on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Netanyahu of trying to undermine the nuclear talks in order to distract from the Palestinians’ unresolved bid for an independent state. 
 
 “Netanyahu is opposed to any sort of solution,” Zarif said. 
 
 Hard-line U.S. supporters of Israel say Netanyahu must take center-stage in Washington to sound the alarm over the potential Iran deal, even at the risk of offending long-time supporters. 
 
 But a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the “politicized” nature of his visit threatened “what undergirds the strength of the relationship”. 
 
 As one former U.S. official put it: “Sure, when Netanyahu calls the White House, Obama will answer. But how fast will he be about responding (to a crisis)?” 
 
 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens as U.S. President Barack Obama (R) speaks, during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington October 1, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque 
 
 Last month, U.S. officials accused the Israeli government of leaking information to the Israeli media to undermine the Iran negotiations and said this would limit further sharing of sensitive details about the talks. 
 
 “What the prime minister is doing here is simply so egregious that it has a more lasting impact on that fundamental underlying relationship,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, head of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group aligned with Obama’s Iran policy. 
 
 Netanyahu will address the influential pro-Israel lobby AIPAC on Monday. Even as he makes his hard-line case against Iran, he is expected to try to keep tensions from spiraling, mindful that Israelis are wary of becoming estranged from their superpower ally. ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 WASHINGTON — President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel offered radically divergent approaches to the perils of a nuclear-armed Iran on Monday even as they tried to cool down the personal nature of a long-distance dispute that has inflamed relations between the United States and Israel for more than a month. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 On the eve of Mr. Netanyahu’s hotly debated address to Congress, the two leaders separately disclaimed personal animosity while laying out what amounts to the biggest policy schism between the two countries in years. Mr. Obama defended his diplomatic efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran while Mr. Netanyahu presented them as dangerously naïve. 
 
 “I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there is still time to avert them,” Mr. Netanyahu told thousands of Israel supporters in Washington. “For 2,000 years, my people, the Jewish people, were stateless, defenseless, voiceless.” He added: “Today, we are no longer silent. Today, we have a voice. And tomorrow, as prime minister of the one and only Jewish state, I plan to use that voice” 
 
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 In an interview a few hours later, Mr. Obama said that he and Mr. Netanyahu had a “substantial disagreement” over how to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. But he suggested that Mr. Netanyahu was an alarmist, saying that the Israeli leader had been unduly skeptical of a preliminary accord intended to slow the Iranian nuclear program during negotiations aimed at a longer-term resolution. 
 
 “Netanyahu made all sorts of claims — this was going to be a terrible deal, this was going to result in Iran getting $50 billion worth of relief, Iran would not abide by the agreement,” Mr. Obama told the Reuters news agency. “None of that has come true.” 
 
 Mr. Obama said that any deal would have to ensure that Iran was not capable of building a nuclear weapon in less than a year, and that the agreement must stand for at least 10 years. “If they do agree to it,” he said, “it would be far more effective in controlling their nuclear program than any military action we could take, any military action Israel could take, and far more effective than sanctions will be.” 
 
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 Mr. Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, coming just two weeks before Israeli elections and three weeks before a deadline in the Iran talks, has polarized politicians in both countries. The prime minister’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday — arranged by Speaker John A. Boehner without consulting the White House — immediately took on a partisan flavor, and Mr. Obama refused to meet with Mr. Netanyahu because his visit comes so close to the Israeli elections. 
 
 Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and more than 50 Democratic lawmakers plan to skip Mr. Netanyahu’s speech. While the White House has not publicly encouraged a boycott, it sent an email late Monday inviting House Democratic aides to a trade meeting at the White House on Tuesday at a time that would make it hard for them to attend the speech. Advocates on both sides have published incendiary newspaper ads in recent days, including one attacking Susan E. Rice, the president’s national security adviser. 
 
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 The president expressed grievance about the speaking invitation, which the White House has interpreted as a way of bashing Mr. Obama and undercutting the Iran talks. In the Reuters interview, Mr. Obama said it would be as if Democrats in Congress invited the French president to speak after opposing President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. “I guarantee you that some of the same commentators who are cheerleading now would have suggested that it was the wrong thing to do,” he said. 
 
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 But the president and his team also seemed intent on tamping down the intensity of the dispute. Secretary of State John Kerry, in Geneva for more talks with Iran, made a point of defending Israel before the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday. And Mr. Obama sent Ms. Rice and Samantha Power, his ambassador to the United Nations, to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington. 
 
 “This is not a personal issue,” Mr. Obama said. “I think that it is important for every country in its relationship with the United States to recognize that the U.S. has a process of making policy.” Even though Ms. Rice said last week that the issue could be “destructive” to bipartisan support of Israel, Mr. Obama said Monday that it was a distraction and would not be “permanently destructive.” 
 
 Mr. Netanyahu, appearing before an estimated 16,000 supporters of Israel at the Aipac conference, characterized the disagreement over Iran as a “family” fight that would ultimately be overcome, and he expressed gratitude to Mr. Obama for his support of Israel over the years. 
 
 “My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds,” Mr. Netanyahu told the crowd, which greeted him with standing ovations. “I have great respect for both.” 
 
 He said he was sorry if anyone interpreted his visit as a political shot at Mr. Obama. “The last thing anyone who cares about Israel, the last thing that I would want, is for Israel to become a partisan issue,” he said, “and I regret that some people have misperceived my visit here this week as doing that. Israel has always been a bipartisan issue. Israel should always remain a bipartisan issue.” 
 
 But he emphasized that the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran looked different from Jerusalem than it does from Washington. “American leaders worry about the security of their country,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Israeli leaders worry about the survival of their country.” 
 
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 Some supporters said they hoped Mr. Netanyahu’s measured language might defuse some of the anger of recent weeks. “I think he did well and lowered the temperature,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who had called on Mr. Netanyahu to cancel the speech because of the fallout. “He could have pepped them up. He did not. It was an important message.” 
 
 Opponents of Mr. Netanyahu said he had done lasting harm. “I’m here to do damage control,” said Erel Margalit, a Labor member of Parliament who attended the Aipac conference. “I’m here to say we, too, are very concerned about Iran becoming a threshold nuclear state, but we’re interested in getting the discussions back to where they were.” 
 
 Republicans maintained that it was Mr. Obama who had done the damage by making a fuss over a speech rather than paying attention to the substance of Mr. Netanyahu’s message. “The address is an opportunity for you to hear from the leader of one of our closest allies about the grave threats we face from radical Islam and Iran,” Mr. Boehner’s office said in an email. 
 
 The tension of the moment was reflected at the Aipac conference before Ms. Power’s speech, when the audience was advised to “treat all our speakers as guests in our home.” Ms. Power and Ms. Rice both used their speeches to reaffirm Mr. Obama’s support for Israel and his determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. 
 
 But Ms. Rice encountered skepticism when she laid out the argument for a possible deal, with the audience applauding the goal of barring Iran from nuclear enrichment altogether even as she called that unrealistic. “Sound bites won’t stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” Ms. Rice said. “Strong diplomacy backed by pressure can.” ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Netanyahu described Iran's nuclear programme as a great danger for Israel 
 
 US Secretary of State John Kerry has questioned the judgement of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu over his stance on Iran's nuclear programme. 
 
 Mr Netanyahu has criticised the US and others for "giving up" on trying to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. 
 
 The Israeli PM "may not be correct", Mr Kerry said after attending the latest Iran nuclear talks in Geneva. 
 
 Mr Netanyahu will address Congress next week, after an invitation by Republican leaders criticised by the White House. 
 
 Mr Kerry was reacting to a speech in which Mr Netanyahu had said the US and others were "accepting that Iran will gradually, within a few years, develop capabilities to produce material for many nuclear weapons". 
 
 "I respect the White House and the president of the United States but on such a fateful matter, that can determine whether or not we survive, I must do everything to prevent such a great danger for Israel," he said in a speech in Israel. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Kerry and his Iranian counterpart have been negotiating Iran's nuclear future 
 
 Having just concluded the latest round of nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva, Mr Kerry told senators President Obama had made it clear the policy was not to let Iran get nuclear weapons and Mr Netanyahu's might therefore not be correct. 
 
 The invitation for Mr Netanyahu to speak before Congress has angered Democrats. 
 
 A spokesman for the White House warned against reducing US-Israeli relations to a party-political issue. 
 
 Analysis - Barbara Plett Usher, BBC News, Washington 
 
 Administration officials have been hitting back at Mr Netanyahu's aggressive opposition to the nuclear deal they're negotiating with Iran - they're unhappy his speech to Congress will give him a platform to make his case as talks reach a critical juncture. 
 
 Susan Rice's comments highlight that strain and are the most direct reference by a senior official to the damage caused by the controversy over the visit. It was arranged by Republican congressional leaders without consulting the Democrats or the White House, just two weeks before Mr Netanyahu faces an election. 
 
 That has angered Democrats, some of whom feel they'll be forced to choose between President Obama and their desire not to upset Israel. More than a dozen have said they plan to skip the speech, opening an unprecedented breach in the usual show of bipartisan support for Israel. 
 
 Earlier, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice had gone further and said Mr Netanyahu's visit was "destructive to the fabric of the relationship". 
 
 Mr Netanyahu was invited by House Speaker John Boehner in what is seen as a rebuke to US President Barack Obama's Iran policy. 
 
 Mr Netanyahu is expected to discuss Iran, as well as Islamist militant groups, in his address. 
 
 The current tensions took root over a decade ago when Iran's nuclear programme first came to light. 
 
 Tough election 
 
 In 2005, Iran was referred to the UN Security Council, leading to a series of sanctions and UN resolutions requiring Tehran to stop enriching uranium. 
 
 The US and other powers - the so-called P5+1 - are negotiating with Iran on its nuclear programme. They want to agree a deal by March this year, but Mr Netanyahu is opposed to any agreement which might allow Tehran to retain the future capacity to build a nuclear weapon. 
 
 The Israeli leader has turned down an invitation to meet Senate Democrats privately, saying this "could compound the misperception of partisanship" surrounding his trip. 
 
 Media Analysis, BBC Monitoring 
 
 Israeli papers are divided over the Obama-Netanyahu spat, with one appearing bemused by the prime minister's stance. 
 
 "The odd, even tragic, thing is that Netanyahu has been doing all he can in recent weeks to help the Iranians achieve their goal," Hemi Shalev writes in Haaretz. 
 
 "First by alienating Obama and the administration, then by provoking the Democratic senators," he adds, referring to Mr Netanyahu's refusal to meet senate democrats separately. 
 
 A commentary in the pro-Netanyahu paper Yisrael Hayom comes out in strong support of the prime minister, saying his Congress speech will be "the last chance to prevent a bad agreement that leaves Iran a threshold nuclear state". 
 
 "The future will prove to what extent Israel was right to be at the forefront of the struggle against the US administration," Haim Shain writes. 
 
 In Yedioth Ahronoth, Guy Bechur dismisses fears of a deeper rupture between the US and Israel, and quotes a Gallop poll in the US as suggesting that 70% of Americans "support or very much support Israel". 
 
 Several Democratic members of Congress including Vice-President Joe Biden have said they will not attend the speech. 
 
 Republican leaders did not consult the Obama administration before inviting Mr Netanyahu, which the White House has called a breach of protocol. 
 
 White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday: "The president has said the relationship between the US and Israel can't just be reduced to a relationship between the Republican party and the Likud party." 
 
 Mr Obama does not plan to meet Mr Netanyahu next week. The White House cited the "long-standing practice" of not meeting government leaders close to elections, which Israel will hold in mid-March. 
 
 Mr Netanyahu is fighting a tough election against the Labour Party's Yitzhak Herzog, who has focused on the prime minister's cooler relations with Mr Obama. ||||| Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Jerusalem's holy Western Wall hours ahead of trip to Washington where he is expected to deliver controversial Congress speech on Iran. (Reuters) 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Jerusalem's holy Western Wall hours ahead of trip to Washington where he is expected to deliver controversial Congress speech on Iran. (Reuters) 
 
 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to a joint meeting of Congress will probably be the most important speech of his career — and one that has already jeopardized relations between Israel and the United States. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, Netanyahu will confront an American president and insist that the future of the State of Israel, and the world, is imperiled by a pending “bad deal” with Iran on its nuclear program. 
 
 Also hanging in the balance is Netanyahu’s own political future. Just two weeks after the speech, Netanyahu will either be reelected to a historic fourth term as prime minister or be out of a job. 
 
 Netanyahu has spent three terms as Israeli prime minister focused on the dangers posed by Iran. In his first address to Congress in 1996, he warned that an atomic Iran would “presage catastrophic consequences, not only for my country, and not only for the Middle East, but for all mankind.” 
 
 His supporters call him prescient; his detractors say Netanyahu has been warning for 20 years that “time is running out” on the Iran threat. His critics say Netanyahu is a broken record, a Cassandra obsessed, willing to deeply damage U.S.-Israeli relations in a futile confrontation with the United States that wins Israel nothing. 
 
 His opponents in Israel and the United States say the speech is mostly a cynical ploy to get reelected in a tight March 17 vote, by fear-mongering on Iran and by opposing an American president who is not very popular in Israel. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, as Secretary of State John F. Kerry meets with his counterparts in Switzerland to try to complete a framework accord with Iran by the end of March, Netanyahu will stand at the lectern in Congress to tell Americans, essentially, that President Obama is either foolhardy or weak and about to sign a deal with the devil. 
 
 Netanyahu will warn, as he has in the past, that the Americans are gambling on a radical Iranian regime run by Muslim clerics who deny the Holocaust, sponsor terrorist groups, support a murderous regime in Syria and pledge to destroy Israel. 
 
 As his chartered plane wings toward Washington on Sunday afternoon, Netanyahu’s advisers say the final author of the speech will be Netanyahu himself. 
 
 The prime minister’s press office released photographs of Netanyahu penning his speech in longhand. 
 
 Netanyahu will write the speech because he considers himself not only an authority on the minutiae of the Iran nuclear program — the number, type and productivity of the centrifuges and the estimates of low-enriched uranium to the kilogram — but also an expert on U.S. politics and the American people. 
 
 Netanyahu studied at MIT and served as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He has been called the “most American” of Israeli prime ministers. 
 
 This is his moment. Netanyahu’s English is fluid, conversational, persuasive and often blunt. He has a flair for stagecraft. His guiding light, says his inner circle, is Britain’s wartime premier and great orator, Winston Churchill, who is the only other foreign leader to have addressed a joint meeting of Congress three times. 
 
 During Netanyahu’s second speech to Congress in May 2009, he received 29 standing ovations. 
 
 Netanyahu’s critics in Israel and in the Obama administration warn that the Israeli leader is really no Churchill and that he has seriously miscalculated this time. 
 
 Israeli relations with Democrats and the Obama administration are at a historic low. 
 
 A top Israeli diplomat said that Netanyahu, if reelected, has already written off his relations with Obama in his last two years in the White House, a potentially perilous gambit for a Middle East leader surrounded by enemies. 
 
 National security adviser Susan E. Rice on Tuesday denounced the upcoming address as “destructive” to the relationship between the United States and Israel. 
 
 A senior U.S. official said Friday that the strategy is to stand aside and let Netanyahu give his speech, which will neither derail Iran talks nor sway Congress to block a possible agreement. 
 
 The senior official, who agreed to present administration views in exchange for anonymity, said the speech is more about Netanyahu’s reelection bid and his preoccupation with Iran — a clear and present threat shared by the Obama White House, but approached in a more pragmatic manner. 
 
 “The Netanyahu myth is that he alone understands the Americans,” said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York and former adviser to four Israeli foreign ministers. 
 
 Pinkas said the speech will be applauded by Republicans but will do little to shape the Iran deal. “He is a grumpy, old man. He’s like a Republican senator from West Jerusalem. He talks like them, he dresses like them. He is always saying, �?They’re against me! They don’t like me!’ He’s dealing with an America he doesn’t know.” Pinkas predicted the speech will fall flat. 
 
 Israeli journalist and author of the best-selling history “My Promised Land,” Ari Shavit, said he expects Netanyahu to give “a brilliant and desperate speech.” 
 
 Shavit is sympathetic. He sees the Iranian threat as more “bloodcurdling” than ever. Yet he says the prime minister has made a mistake by working against the U.S. administration rather than beside it. 
 
 Now “Israel rather than Iran has been isolated,” Shavit wrote in a recent column . 
 
 Netanyahu has opposed any deal with Iran that does not dismantle its uranium-enrichment program and insisted that economic sanctions should be stiffened, not lifted. Kerry and his negotiators have said such a deal is impossible. 
 
 Senior administration officials say an imperfect agreement that freezes Iran’s nuclear ambitions and allows for monitoring leaves the world in a much safer place than a rogue Iran with the potential to rush toward a bomb in clandestine bunkers packed with centrifuges. 
 
 Iran has long maintained that it seeks only a peaceful atom, and it is within its rights to research and exploit nuclear energy. 
 
 Netanyahu does not believe this. The Israeli leader has brushed aside appeals by Jewish leaders in the United States, congressional Democrats and some of his allies at home to pull back and find a face-saving way to cancel the speech. 
 
 In Israel, Netanyahu faces an extremely tight race for reelection against a surprisingly strong challenger, Isaac Herzog, leader of the Labor Party, who has pounded Netanyahu for endangering U.S.-Israeli relations with his speech. 
 
 Two hundred former generals and commanders of the Israeli Defense Forces, Mossad intelligence agency, Shin Bet domestic security and National Police are scheduled to appear at a joint news conference Sunday to urge Netanyahu to avoid any further deterioration of the U.S.-Israeli strategic relationship. 
 
 All this may help Netanyahu at home. “There will be nothing new in this speech,” said Dan Avnon, a lecturer of political theory at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “The question here is who will be able to replace him? Can anyone else stand up in Congress and talk so forcefully against the leader of the United States? This has an effect on voters in Israel. People sit at home and say this man really steps up to the pressure.” 
 
 “What will happen after the speech? I honestly don’t know,” said Yuval Steinitz, Israeli minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, a Netanyahu confidant and the Israeli government’s top authority on the nuclear talks. 
 
 “It will be very clear this is a historic speech,” Steinitz said. “Because this issue is burning in his bones. He really feels that as prime minister of Israel this is his first priority, above all other issues.” 
 
 Netanyahu’s speech is going to be especially challenging, as it must reach multiple audiences with multiple messages. 
 
 “He is speaking to the people of Israel, his political system, to the administration, to Congress and to the American people, as well,” said Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a former foreign policy adviser to the prime minister who is still part of his inner circle. 
 
 “I think the notion that this speech is for political purposes is baseless,” said Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. 
 
 Netanyahu has reveled on the grand stages afforded him in past performances at the United Nations and before Congress. In a September 2012 address before the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu employed a kind of Wile E. Coyote drawing of a bomb with a fuse and took out a marker to draw a literal red line. 
 
 Netanyahu’s intelligence minister said he has not seen a draft of the speech, but he said the prime minister will stress that leaving Iran with thousands of centrifuges and a stockpile of uranium — materials that Israelis say would allow Iran to break through to a nuclear bomb in months, not years — is too dangerous. 
 
 “Our position is simple,” Steinitz said. “Iran built a nuclear program in secret, illegally. They want normal relations with the world? Okay, dismantle it.” 
 
 Ruth Eglash and Anne Gearan contributed to this report. ||||| JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the international community's framework nuclear agreement with Iran early Friday, putting him on a collision course with the United States and other close allies as the world tries to close in on a final deal in the coming months. 
 
 Iranians flash the victory sign from their car while celebrating at a street in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, April 2, 2015, after Iran's nuclear agreement with world powers in Lausanne, Switzerland.... (Associated Press) 
 
 US Secretary of State John Kerry gestures as he speaks to the press at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, or Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thursday, April... (Associated Press) 
 
 British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, centre, US Secretary of State John Kerry, centre right and US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz listen while Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif makes a statement... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Head of Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, 2nd right, talks with Hossein Fereydoon, special assistant to the Iranian president, while walking through a garden at the Beau Rivage... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Barack Obama pauses while speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 2, 2015, about the breakthrough in the Iranian nuclear talks. The president heralded a... (Associated Press) 
 
 Iranian women cheer and flash the victory sign from their car while celebrating on a street in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, April 2, 2015, after Iran's nuclear agreement with world powers in Lausanne,... (Associated Press) 
 
 An Iranian man flashes the victory sign from his car while celebrating at a street in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, April 2, 2015, after Iran's nuclear agreement with world powers in Lausanne, Switzerland.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Netanyahu, who had been outspoken critic of the world's negotiations with Iran, said he voiced his "strong opposition" to the deal, negotiated by world powers and Iran in Lausanne, Switzerland, in a phone call with President Barack Obama. "A deal based on this framework would threaten the survival of Israel," he said. 
 
 But with the deal being welcomed around the globe, Netanyahu could find have a tough time trying to rally opposition to it as it is finalized ahead of a June 30 deadline. His best bet could lie with the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress. 
 
 Netanyahu believes Iran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb — a concern that has been shared by much of the world. He considers a nuclear-armed Iran a threat to Israel's very existence, given Iranian leaders' calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, Iran's support for hostile militant groups across the region and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. 
 
 The framework deal includes a system of limits and inspections on Iranian nuclear facilities, but falls short of Israeli demands to dismantle the program. Netanyahu believes Iran cannot be trusted, and that leaving certain facilities intact would allow the Iranians to reach the capability of building a bomb. 
 
 "Such a deal would not block Iran's path to the bomb. It would pave it," Netanyahu said. 
 
 Yuval Steinitz, his Cabinet minister who monitors the Iranian nuclear program, said Israel would continue to push to cancel or at least improve the deal as it is finalized ahead of a June 30 deadline. 
 
 Yoel Guzansky, a former Iran analyst in the Israeli prime minister's office and a research fellow at the INSS think tank in Tel Aviv, said Thursday's announcement was a game changer. 
 
 The deal starts a process "where Iran will stop being a pariah state," he said. "Israel will need to see how to inspect Iran on its own, and not rely on the international community." 
 
 A key factor, he said, would be how other Arab countries that share Israel's concerns about Iran will react. "Israel will have to cooperate and talk to them about the mutual fear about Iran," he said. 
 
 Netanyahu has warned of Iran's nuclear intentions for years, and has said that preventing Iran from developing a bomb is the mission of his lifetime. 
 
 In recent weeks, he stepped up his rhetoric. Last month, Netanyahu harshly criticized the emerging agreement in a speech to the U.S. Congress, enraging the White House because the visit was arranged behind its back with Republican lawmakers. 
 
 But the speech, and furious Israeli lobbying to other participants in the Iran talks, appeared to have made little difference. 
 
 Britain, Germany, France and Italy — all key European allies and all directly or indirectly involved in the negotiations in Switzerland— welcomed the deal. 
 
 "We are closer than ever to an agreement that makes it impossible for Iran to possess nuclear weapons," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. "That is a great credit to all negotiating partners." 
 
 French President Francois Hollande saluted the work of the foreign ministers, but cautioned that sanctions remained on the horizon if the final agreement set for June 30 were not respected. 
 
 Russia, another participant in the talks, said the deal could have a "positive influence" on the region. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the framework "paves the way" for a historic agreement that could "contribute to peace and stability in the region." 
 
 In Washington, Obama, who has had a rocky relationship with Netanyahu over Iran and other matters, tried to soothe Israeli concerns. At a news conference, he called the deal "the best option" for preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. 
 
 In his phone call with Netanyahu, Obama said the framework would bring a deal "that cuts off all of Iran's pathways to a bomb," according to the White House. It said the deal "in no way diminishes" U.S. concerns about "Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and threats toward Israel" or America's commitment to Israel's security. 
 
 Earlier, Obama said had spoken with the Saudi king, and announced that he was inviting the leaders of six Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, to Washington this spring. 
 
 Netanyahu has said moderate Arab states see "eye to eye" with him on Iran. 
 
 While Netanyahu has threatened in the past to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, that option seems to be a long shot at this stage. 
 
 His best bet for foiling the deal could lie with the Congress, where Israel enjoys bipartisan support. Lawmakers have been threatening to try to delay the agreement or even push for new sanctions against Iran. 
 
 Reaction from Republicans who control Congress ranged from caution to dire warnings that the pact would be a mere prelude to Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons. 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, was among many insisting that Congress be allowed to vote on details of any agreement and expressing distrust of Iran. 
 
 "It would be naïve to suggest the Iranian regime will not continue to use its nuclear program, and any economic relief, to further destabilize the region," said Boehner, who visited Israel and met with Netanyahu during a Mideast tour this week. 
 
 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, a Republican senator from Tennessee, said that as planned, his panel will vote this month on bipartisan legislation requiring congressional review of any final nuclear deal reached by June 30. "The administration first should seek the input of the American people," he said. 
 
 Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the framework. "Now is the time for thoughtful consideration, not rash action that could undermine the prospects for success," the Nevada Democrat said. 
 
 In the Iranian capital of Tehran, hundreds of drivers began honking and flashing their headlights in celebration after the deal was announced. Many motorists, returning home from the Nowruz holiday, the Persian New Year, got out of their cars and began dancing and singing in celebration, 
 
 Earlier, President Hassan Rouhani welcomed the deal, saying on his Twitter account that "solutions on key parameters" have been reached and that the final deal will be struck by the end of June. 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP writers Alan Fram in Washington, Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Jim Heintz in Moscow, Cara Anna at the United Nations, Jill Lawless in London, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Elaine Ganley in Paris and Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report. ||||| Gay ex-ballplayer has the perfect response to Christian player’s criticism of his ‘lifestyle’ 
 
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 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington DC, on March 2, 2015 (AFP) 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for another round in an increasingly heated battle with the White House over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. 
 
 In a landmark speech to Congress, Netanyahu will seek to mobilise lawmakers to oppose an emerging deal with Tehran which is backed by President Barack Obama. 
 
 Obama on Monday lashed out at his nemesis, pointing to Netanyahu’s attacks on a previous interim US-Iran deal that paved the way for this week’s ongoing talks in Switzerland. 
 
 “Netanyahu made all sorts of claims,” he told Reuters. 
 
 “This was going to be a terrible deal,” he went on. “This was going to result in Iran getting $50 billion worth of relief. Iran would not abide by the agreement. None of that has come true.” 
 
 Netanyahu aides say that in his address he will present information proving that the shape of the deal being discussed in Switzerland this week presents grave danger. 
 
 State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf warned Monday that if the details came from US briefings to Israel, revealing them could mean there would be no more. 
 
 “We’ve continuously provided detailed classified briefings to Israeli officials to keep them updated and to provide context,” she said. 
 
 “Any release of any kind of information like that would, of course, betray that trust.” 
 
 “We want to keep talking in these settings, of course, but that would be a problem.” 
 
 Netanyahu believes that in the talks with Iran the so-called P5+1 group is verging on striking a deal that will ease international sanctions without the ironclad safeguards the Jewish state says are essential to deny Tehran a nuclear bomb. 
 
 The US administration says that is just not true. 
 
 “This president has made clear that he’s not going to sign a bad deal,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday. 
 
 - Power: No nuclear arms for Iran - 
 
 Samantha Power, Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations, weighed into the fight on Monday when she addressed 16,000 pro-Israel activists in the US capital. 
 
 “The United States of America will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, period,” she said. Taking the podium shortly after Power, Netanyahu remained unswerving in his opposition to Obama’s policy. 
 
 “The purpose of my address to Congress tomorrow is to speak up about a potential deal with Iran that could threaten the survival of Israel,” he said. 
 
 “My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama,” he told the lobby group AIPAC’s annual conference. 
 
 “Israel and the United States agree that Iran shouldn’t have nuclear weapons. But we disagree on the best way to prevent them from developing those weapons.” 
 
 The row is not only about the core issues but also about the way Netanyahu and US Republicans are waging the battle. 
 
 He was invited by Speaker of the House John Boehner, a Republican, and he accepted with neither party informing the White House. 
 
 Netanyahu himself is running for a third consecutive term — which would be a fourth overall — in an Israeli election on March 17. 
 
 “Our commitments to our partnership with Israel are bedrock commitments rooted in shared fundamental values cemented through decades of bipartisan reinforcement,” Power said. 
 
 “This partnership should never be politicised.” 
 
 The Israeli leader’s lobbying expedition to Washington came as US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Switzerland for talks with his Iranian counterpart on what would be an historic deal. 
 
 But Netanyahu denied that his action had harmed the traditionally close US-Israeli alliance. 
 
 “Reports of the demise of the Israeli-US relations are not only premature, they’re just wrong.” 
 
 Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met in a lakeside hotel for a series of sessions which are scheduled to stretch into Wednesday afternoon. 
 
 The pace of the negotiations meant to rein in Iran’s suspected nuclear arms program in exchange for sanctions relief has gathered pace as a March 31 deadline nears. 
 
 Mark Heller, a political analyst at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies says that after years of warning about the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran, it is hard to imagine what new angle Netanyahu will pursue on Tuesday. 
 
 “He’s been over this ground before many times and expectations have been built up to the point where if he doesn’t come up with something truly explosive, it’s going to be a big let down,” he told AFP. 
 
 “I think he’s going to have to pull some kind of rabbit out of the hat and reveal some information that’s not out there in the public domain; otherwise he’ll just be preaching to the converted.”
– Over the next two days, Washington will be a study in contrasts. Today, President Obama and two key advisers will push for a diplomatic means of avoiding a nuclear Iran; tomorrow, in a controversial speech to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will push back against the plan, the New York Times reports. To set the scene: Netanyahu left Tel Aviv yesterday for what he called "a fateful, even historic, mission" for which he is "an emissary of all Israel's citizens, even those who do not agree with me, and of the entire Jewish people," Reuters reports. His speech will likely call for boosted sanctions against Iran, but Obama has suggested he would veto any bill giving Congress a chance to legislate on the matter. This weekend, Netanyahu offered conciliatory words, saying he "respected" Obama and that "strength will prevail over differences of opinion." Obama will meet Reuters for an interview this afternoon, while National Security Adviser Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Samantha Power speak to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a group Netanyahu will also address, the Times reports. The paper sees the meetings as a chance for the administration to reaffirm its support for Israel. Indeed, John Kerry yesterday noted on ABC's This Week that Netanyahu "is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously. And we have a closer relationship with Israel right now in terms of security than at any time in history," Reuters reports. Kerry tomorrow will join international officials in Switzerland as they look to outline an Iranian deal by the month's end, the Washington Post reports. Kerry has been working closely—too closely, according to some Iranian lawmakers—with Iran's foreign minister to hammer out a deal, the Times reports. "He has made a huge investment of his time and energy in the talks, and his personal, hands-on involvement in recent months has been crucial to building momentum toward a deal," says an analyst. But some worry that Iran could read Kerry's "eagerness" as an opening to seek more concessions. Meanwhile, the UN's nuclear agency says Iran is coming up short on providing essential information, Reuters reports. "The (IAEA) is not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities," the agency's chief says.