Washington, September 23 (RHC)-- U.S. President Barack Obama will be welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House for the first time in seven months. The announcement about the October 1st meeting was made by the White House National Security Council spokeswoman on Monday night.

Caitlin Hayden said that the meeting will likely highlight the U.S.-Israeli division over the Iranian negotiations. Iran and the P5+1 group of countries -- Russia, China, the United States, Britain, and France plus Germany -- resumed the seventh round of their negotiations on the Iranian nuclear energy program in New York last week to reach a final agreement aimed at resolving the standoff over Tehran's civilian nuclear work.

Last November, Iran and the six world powers signed an interim deal in Geneva, which took effect on January 20 and expired six months later. In July, Iran and the six countries agreed to extend negotiations until November 24th this year after they failed to reach common ground on a number of key issues.