New Delhi, Dec. 21 -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he plans to visit New York City "soon," weeks after Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov publicly invited him to come on January 1, mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's inauguration day.

While Netanyahu said he would not be able to come on January 1, he confirmed his intention to visit the city at a later date.

"Even though I won't be able to make it on that day, I assure you that I will visit New York soon. And I'd very much like to see you at that time," Netanyahu wrote in a letter on official stationery to Vernikov, according to a report in The New York Post.

Vernikov, a conservative councilwoman, had extended the invitation as a pointed response to Mamdani's campaign r...