Achi news desk-
House Speaker Mike Johnson said The Independents that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would sign a letter inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver a joint address to Congress.
Previously, Mr Johnson had pushed the Democratic leader of the US Senate to sign a letter allowing Mr Netanyahu to deliver a joint address to Congress.
But after votes on Wednesday, he said Mr Schumer had agreed to do so.
“I spoke to him today and he is going to co-sign the letter and it will go out to the prime minister this week,” Mr Johnson told The Independents.
The speaker said he did not have a date set at the moment.
“No, I’m going to talk about prime minister Netanyahu about that today,” he said.
The invitation comes despite the fact that Mr Schumer has previously called for new elections in Israel and criticized Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
But Mr Johnson and Mr Schumer – along with almost every major elected official in Washington – condemned the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court’s announcement that he would seek arrest warrants against Mr Netanyahu, as well as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior . Hamas officials.
But the Biden administration said it had not been informed of such a visit.
“So at the moment we have not heard from the Prime Minister on a joint address to Congress, the president is speaking to the prime minister in fact, he spoke to him not too long ago , senior administration officials engaged him. so over the weekend,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. “So we will keep in touch with the prime minister and obviously we will keep in touch with Congress to see what happens.”
