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Israeli president hints at rift with PM Netanyahu over foreign policy

Xinhua, September 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israel's President Reuven Rivlin said on Thursday he has not met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in two months, citing "differences of opinion" over foreign policy.

Regular working meetings between presidents and prime ministers are customary in Israel. But earlier this year, relations between the two leaders have strained in the wake of Rivlin's criticism of the Netanyahu's rift with the U.S. administration over the nuclear deal with Iran.

Since Rivlin assumed the presidency in July 2014, he used to "meet with the prime minister for a one-on-one meeting once a month," but that hasn't been the case recently, he told Israel's Army Radio.

"I think we exhausted our differences regarding various international issues - not about the Iranian issue - but about Israel's ties with the international community," he said.

"Until things are removed from the agenda, we probably don't need to meet because each of us is busy with the same issues," he added.

Netanyahu has been a relentless and vocal opponent of the world powers' agreement with Iran, putting him on a collision course with the U.S. President Barack Obama.

In March, he spoke in front of the congress, trying to convince its members not to support the deal, in a move that angered the administration.

Last week, after Obama secured enough Democratic senators' votes to block a Republican initiative to foil the deal, Netanyahu charged that the majority of the U.S. public objects to the agreement. Endit