Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attemtped to stop a briefing by his country's intelligence agency, the Mossad, to a delegation of  United States senators bound for Israel last January.

In this briefing that pushed through on January 19, only after some negotiations, Mossad's chief Tamir Pardo had warned the lawmakers that the U.S. Congress could damage the talks aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program.

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Netanyahu's attempt to intervene to cancel the event was reported by sources familiar with the briefing.

No reason has been revealed as to why the prime minister did not want the briefing to take place.

Nevertheless, the briefing still pushed through at the request of Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, head of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

When Corker learned that Netanyahu had removed the trip from the intelligence agency's schedule, Corker had also threatened to cancel his own Israel trip at once.

Israel Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer saved the situation by personally pleading to Netanyahu to allow the delegation's trip and the briefing to go on.

Those who accompanied Corker were Republican senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Barrasso, along with  Democratic Senators Tim Kaine and Joe Donnelly, as well as Independent Senator Angus King.

The U.S. legislators particularly wanted to know the implications of the controversial bill proposed by Republican senator Mark Kirk and Democrat senator Robert Menendez on the negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.

The bill seeks to impose new sanctions on Iran if by June 30, it has not agreed to a long term nuclear deal with the Western powers.

During the Mossad briefing, Pardo had told the American lawmakers that the measure can cause the collapse of the talks with Iran.

Pardo had likened the enactment of the Kirk-Menendez bill to "throwing a grenade" into the diplomatice relations between the United States and Iran.

Corker wanted to get the input of Israel's intelligence agency, as the U.S. Congress makes its own assessment of the nuclear talks between Iran and the Western countries, led by the United States.

TagsNetanyahu, Iran, nuclear talks, Mossad