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Israel 'spied on US over Iran nuclear talks' Israel denies spying on US over Iran nuclear talks
(about 1 hour later)
Israel has spied on Iran’s nuclear talks with the US and other major powers, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Israel has categorically denied allegations that it spied on closed-door nuclear negotiations between Iran and the US, following a report that it passed the intelligence to the US Congress in a bid to scupper the deal.
Israel quickly dismissed Tuesday’s report, saying it was not true and it did not spy on the US. In what is shaping up to be another major row in US-Israeli relations, the Wall Street Journal, quoting current and former US officials, said the operation was designed to infiltrate the talks and help build a case against the emerging terms of a deal.
The report, quoting current and former US officials, said the operation was designed to infiltrate the talks and help build a case against the emerging terms of a deal. Israel denied it had spied on the US but not that such information had been obtained. The report also said Israel “acquired information from confidential US briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe”.
Besides eavesdropping, Israel obtained information from confidential US briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the officials told the Journal. “I think the report is wrong, it is inaccurate,” the outgoing Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told the country’s Army Radio on Tuesday morning. “The state of Israel obviously has various security interests and we have excellent intelligence services, but we are not engaged in espionage against the United States.”
It added that more than the espionage, what irked the White House was the fact that Israel shared inside information with US legislators in a bid to sap support for a deal intended to limit Iran’s nuclearprogramme. He did not, however, deny information was obtained for such purposes, admitting “all the information we gathered was from another entity, not the US”. Lieberman added: “We reached a decision a long time ago not to spy on the US and I haven’t come across anyone who has violated that instruction in several decades.”
Many Republicans are opposed to an agreement. “It is one thing for the US and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal US secrets and play them back to US legislators to undermine US diplomacy,” the Wall Street Journal quoted a senior US official briefed on the matter as saying. Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s strategic affairs minister and close aide to the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told Israel’s Channel 2 that the reports were “intended to damage the strong ties between the US and Israel, despite our differences on the Iran issue”.
Barack Obama’s administration is reportedly more troubled by the fact that Israeli officials leaked the information to Congress than the eavesdropping itself. “It is one thing for the US and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal US secrets and play them back to US legislators to undermine US diplomacy,” the Wall Street Journal quoted a senior US official as saying.
Many Republicans are opposed to an agreement between Iran and the US.
Israel claims it found out about the existence of confidential talks between the US and Iran in the summer of 2013, months before they were officially informed by the Obama administration, according to a senior Israeli official who spoke with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
US intelligence agencies spying on Israel discovered the operation when they intercepted communications among Israeli officials. These communications carried details the US believed could only have come from access to the confidential talks, officials said, according to the Journal.US intelligence agencies spying on Israel discovered the operation when they intercepted communications among Israeli officials. These communications carried details the US believed could only have come from access to the confidential talks, officials said, according to the Journal.
Outgoing Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman dismissed the report. “This report is not true. Obviously Israel has security interests to defend and we have our own intelligence. But we do not spy on the United States. There are enough participants in these negotiations, including Iranians,” he said in Israel.
“We got our intelligence from other sources, not from the United States. The instruction has been clear for decades now: you don’t spy on the United States, directly or indirectly.”