President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner shake hands. The Obama administration and Boehner are in disagreement over the latter's invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress. Photo: Pete Souza/White House.

JNS.org – US Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) says he informed the White House ahead of time of his plans to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress on Iran’s nuclear program.

“I gave them a heads-up that morning (Jan. 21),” Boehner said in an interview with the CBS program 60 Minutes.

“But there’s nobody in the world who can talk about the threat of radical terrorism, nobody can talk about the threat that the Iranians pose, not just to the Middle East and to Israel, our longest ally but to the entire world, but Bibi Netanyahu,” Boehner added.

Boehner also denied that he invited Netanyahu as a political move against President Barack Obama. Netanyahu is a known critic of Obama’s policy of engagement with Iran.

On March 3, Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress on the Iranian nuclear issue and radical Islam. The White House claimed Boehner breached “protocol” by not consulting with Obama on the invitation, while Boehner said Congress “can make this decision on its own” and that Obama “papered over” the Iranian nuclear threat during his recent State of the Union address. In that speech, Obama vowed to veto a new Iran sanctions bill.