Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surprised US officials to cancel a scheduled state visit for March 18 in Washington.
"We look forward to receiving the bilateral meeting and we were surprised to receive the information, primarily through media reports that the Prime Minister, instead of accepting our invitation, opted for the cancellation of the visit," said the spokesman US National Security Council, Ned Price.
The date of the visit had been chosen by Israel and was accepted by the White House two weeks ago, Price said. "Information that we were not able to accommodate the Prime Minister's agenda are false," said the spokesman.
The office of Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the prime minister expressed appreciation for Obama's willingness to receive it, but Netanyahu wants to be involved in the US presidential campaign in which the candidates have tried to assert their positions as friends of Israel.
Zeev Elkin, a minister in the Israeli cabinet close to Netanyahu denied that the Obama administration has been caught off guard, saying the Israeli ambassador, Ron Dermer, warned the White House in advance that the trip could not happen.
The travel Netanyahu to the US should coincide with a meeting of the main pro-Israel lobby in the country, AIPAC.
The refusal of the Israeli prime minister is a sign of a concussion in the relationship between the two leaders, which has worsened since the completion of the nuclear agreement with Iran last year.
Israel is still the biggest US ally in the Middle East. Netanyahu, however, made sharp criticism of the agreement, saying it could strengthen the regime of the ayatollahs.
In March last year, the prime minister broke diplomatic protocols to speak directly to the American Congress, attending an invitation from the Republican Party. At the time, Netanyahu urged lawmakers not to approve the nuclear deal with Tehran.
During the trip, a few days before the elections in Israel, the White House refused to receive it. The leaders of the two countries, however, met in November in an effort to strengthen diplomatic ties.
The US and Israel are negotiating a defense agreement involving billions of dollars, since the current agreement ends in 2018. Under the current agreement, Israel receives $ 3.1 billion annually.
In February, Netanyahu and members of his cabinet said that Israel can wait until the inauguration of the next president in 2017, to possibly ensure better conditions in the negotiations on the new agreement.
US Vice President Joe Biden arrives later on Tuesday to have separate talks on Wednesday with Netanyahu and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, in which there is expected to break the impasse in mediated peace efforts the US.
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