Richard Grenell, a former U.S. diplomat and Fox News contributor, says a State Department source told him U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power was instructed to skip the remarks of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations on Thursday.
State Dept Source: @AmbassadorPower was instructed to skip @netanyahu‘s UN speech.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) October 1, 2015
Secretary of State John Kerry was also not present at Netanyahu’s remarks either, according to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
Neither Amb. Power nor Sec. Kerry in the audience for Netanyahu’s speech at #UGNA. –#AMR Staff — Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) October 1, 2015
Additionally, those U.S. delegates that did attend the Israeli Prime minister’s speech did not applaud when ovations broke out for remarks made by the Prime Minister about Iranian threats.
“Here’s a general rule that I learned and you must have learned in your lifetime. When bad behavior is rewarded it only gets worse,” he said as the U.S. delegates sat quietly with their hand in their laps and others gave Netanyahu applause.
The Obama administration and Netanyahu clashed on President Obama’s handling of the nuclear deal with Iran. Defying the administration’s views on the matter, Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress last March to ask members not to sign on with a nuclear deal with Iran.