Obama acknowledges gaffe over Netanyahu insult but refuses to elaborate

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U.S. President Obama refuses to discuss the conversation he had November 3 with French President Sarkozy in which they were accidentally overheard disparaging Prime Minister Netanyahu.

By Natasha Mozgovaya and Barak Ravid

U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned on Sunday morning the embarrassing gaffe that took place on November 3, when what he thought a private conversation between himself and French President Nicolas Sarkozy was broadcast to reporters.

Obama acknowledged the incident but refused to comment on disparaging remarks he and Sarkozy had made about Prime Minister Netanyahu. “With respect to the ‘hot mic’ in France, I'm not going to comment on conversations that I have with individual leaders,” Obama said in Hawaii.

Unaware that a microphone in the meeting room at the G20 summit at Cannes was on , Sarkozy was heard on November 3 calling Netanyahu "a liar" in what he thought was a private exchange with Obama.

"I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, who was also unaware that the mic had been turned on and was being monitored by reporters via the headsets used for simultaneous translations.

Obama didn't exactly defend Netanyahu in that conversation, either. "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied, according to wire service reports.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/obama-acknowledges-gaffe-over-netanyahu-insult-but-refuses-to-elaborate-1.395581