Israel spied on US talks with Iran on the Islamic Republic’s controversial nuclear programme and shared the inside information with American legislators to sabotage the crucial deal which is in the final stage of negotiation, a media report said on Tuesday.
The spying operation was part of a broader campaign by Israel to penetrate the negotiations and then build a case against the “emerging terms of the deal,” unnamed White House officials were quoted by the Wall Street Journal. In addition to eavesdropping, Israel acquired information from confidential US briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the report said.
The espionage operation was discovered when US agencies stumbled upon communications between Israeli officials that carried details the US believed could have come only from access to the confidential talks.
The report added that more than the espionage it was the sharing of inside information with US lawmakers to drain support for the high-stakes deal that irked the White House. Many Republicans are opposed to nuclear deal with Iran.
Israel denies report
Jerusalem: A senior Israeli official on Tuesday denied allegations that it spied on closed-door negotiations between the US and other world powers over a nuclear deal with Iran.
“The allegations are utterly false,” a senior official from the Prime Minister’s office told Xinhua news agency on condition of anonymity. “Israel does not conduct espionage against the United States or Israel’s other allies.”
The denial followed a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday that Israel acquired confidential information on the nuclear talks in order to help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu build a case against the emerging deal.
Such allegations were intended “to undermine the strong ties between the United States and Israel, and the security and intelligence relationship we share”, the official said.
The Wall Street Journal report said that Israel’s espionage included eavesdropping, in addition to obtaining information from confidential US briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe.