The Israeli prime minister’s office said on Monday night that a date had not yet been set for Benjamin Netanyahu to address the full session of the US Congress in Washington, adding that it would not happen on June 13, a Jewish day. public holiday.

This is an indirect denial of the information in reports of the American websites Punchbowl News and Politico last night, during which he would deliver the speech next Thursday.

Mr Netanyahu was invited on Friday by the four leaders of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, to speak before the US Congress and accepted the invitation on Saturday, stressing via X that he was “very excited” to be given this “privilege”.

The invitation was extended to the Israeli prime minister after two consecutive diplomatic defeats suffered by his government: on the one hand, the recognition of the state of Palestine by three European countries; and on the other hand, the decision of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, to request the issuance of arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu, the Yoav Galand government’s Defense Minister and Hamas leaders for alleged “crimes against humanity.”

It was also announced after US President Joe Biden’s repeated public interventions against the launch of a large-scale ground offensive in Rafah, where more than a million civilians were trapped, and his threat to suspend some US ammunition deliveries to the Israeli army, in particular of bombs, if it was not listened to. His stance was strongly criticized in Washington, especially by Republicans, who accused Mr. Biden of abandoning the main US ally in the Middle East.

The invitation to Mr. Netanyahu, however, is causing reactions in the ranks of the Democrats, with Senator Bernie Sanders calling him a “war criminal” and stressing that he will “definitely” not attend his speech, according to the Politico report.