House Speaker John Boehner and a House delegation will visit Israel and meet with recently re-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this month, his office said Friday.
"The speaker will visit Israel during the next district work period," said Kevin Smith, a Boehner spokesman. "He looks forward to visiting the country, discussing our shared priorities for peace and security in the region, and further strengthening the bond between the United States and Israel."
Boehner’s office didn’t provide dates for the trip. The Israeli publication Haaretz reported that Boehner will arrive in Israel with a delegation of Republican lawmakers on March 31.
Senior Israeli officials told Haaretz that the final approval for the trip was given two weeks ago when Netahyahu was in Washington to deliver a controversial speech to a joint session of Congress. In the speech, the prime minister lobbied against a nuclear deal with Iran that the Obama administration and five other world powers are seeking.
According to congressional sources, Boehner’s trip was planned before Israel’s March 17 elections and before Netanyahu’s March 3 speech in Washington. The sources added that Boehner has visited Israel several times, most recently in 2008.