President Barack Obama instructed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power to be absent from the U.N. General Assembly during Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech Thursday night.
Powers’ absence was reported by The Daily Caller, based on a source who informed former U.S. diplomat and Fox News contributor Richard Grenell of the snub.
MSNBC reported on Kerry’s absence.
The United States was represented at the speech by Daniel Shapiro, its Ambassador to Israel, and David Pressman and Richard Erdman, the U.S. Alternate Representatives to the United Nations.
The audience at the General Assembly interrupted Netanyahu’s speech several times with applause, but the U.S. delegates kept their hands in their laps. One of the ovations followed the Prime Minister’s charged that the nuclear deal with Iran already has resulted in more terror and that it will bring war, not peace.
A State Dept. official told Breitbart News:
Ambassador Power and Secretary Kerry were unable to attend Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech before the General Assembly because they were called into a meeting with President Obama, which they participated in via video teleconference.
Both officials were in New York for General Assembly meetings.
