Report: Israel spied on U.S. nuclear talks with Iran

Madrid, Mar 24 (EFE).- Israel spied on the closed-door nuclear negotiations that took place between Iran and Western powers shortly after they began last year, the U.S. Wall Street Journal newspaper revealed on Tuesday.

“The spying operation was part of a broader campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to penetrate the negotiations and then help build a case against the emerging terms of the deal,” the publisher cited former and current U.S. government officials.

“In addition to eavesdropping, Israel acquired information from confidential U.S. briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe,” the officials added.

A senior U.S. official briefed on the matter said: “It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy.”

The Wall Street Journal underlined that both the United States and Israel, longtime allies who routinely swap information on security threats, “sometimes operate behind the scenes like spy-versus-spy rivals.”

“The White House discovered the operation, in fact, when U.S. intelligence agencies spying on Israel intercepted communications among Israeli officials that carried details the U.S. believed could have come only from access to the confidential talks,” the U.S. newspaper quoted officials briefed on the matter.

Additionally, the publisher added that “Israeli officials denied spying directly on U.S. negotiators,” and said they received their information through other means, “including close surveillance of Iranian leaders receiving the latest U.S. and European offers.”

Group negotiations between G5+1 (France, Britain, Russia, the United States, China, plus Germany) and Iran have opened in recent months a serious gap in the traditionally close relations between the United States and Israel.

Israel is firmly opposed to the agreement that the Western powers are trying to form with Iran in resolving disputes concerning its nuclear program, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “very bad deal.”

Netanyahu, who won the Israeli general elections last week, even confronted the U.S. Democrat President Barack Obama when he visited the U.S. Congress on March 4, 2015, at the invitation of Republican members, declaring his objection to the agreement that Washington is negotiating with Iran. EFE

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