Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the coming speech of Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before Congress threatens to sink the nuclear talks between Iran and the United States.

Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the United States House of Representatives and member of the Democratic Party, said Thursday that the coming speech of Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before Congress threatens to sink the nuclear talks between Iran and the United States.

"I think that such a presentation could send the wrong message," Pelosi told reporters during the Democrats' annual issues retreat in Philadelphia. "That's my view, and I shared that with the prime minister today."

A Pelosi spokesman said Pelosi and Netanyahu spoke by phone earlier in the day. The spokesman declined to characterize Netanyahu's response.

House Speaker John Boehner announced last week that Netanyahu had accepted his invitation to address a rare joint session of Congress early this year – an invitation extended without consulting Democratic leaders in Congress or the White House.

Boehner defended the action, saying Congress has every right, as a separate branch of government, to operate without the administration's input. But Pelosi was quick to criticize Boehner's move as a breach of protocol, saying "such invitations to heads of state have always been preceded by consultations with leaders from the opposing party."

The debate arrived amid negotiations between Iran and the United States, among a group of other western nations, over the future of Iran's nuclear peaceful program.
U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking to ease Iran sanctions as part of the deal, setting a deadline for late March.

Republicans and some Democrats have urged stronger sanctions amidst those talks, although a number of Democratic senators this week eased the pressure to allow the negotiations to run their full course.