Early on in major powers’ negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, the White House discovered that Israel was spying on the secret talks, the Wall Street Journal reported late Monday night.
Netanyahu’s government was attempting to build a case against the deal being forged, using surveillance, as well as U.S. informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, according to White House officials said.
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The report notes that the White House was not as upset with Israel’s espionage, as it was with the fact that Netanyahu shared this information with U.S. politicians, in an attempt to quash support for the deal.
“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, ” a senior U.S. official told the WSJ.
According to the WSJ, the White House discovered the operation when U.S. spies intercepted communications among Israeli officials with details that could only have been gotten from access to the confidential talks.
Israel denied spying directly on the negotiators, claiming it received the information in question through surveillance of Iranian leaders, as well as from the French and the British.
There is no doubt that Israel’s tactics in the Iran talks case have damaged the Jewish State’s relations not only with this Administration, but with future ones as well.
“People feel personally sold out, ” a senior administration official told the WSJ. “That’s where the Israelis really better be careful because a lot of these people will not only be around for this administration but possibly the next one as well.”
Israeli officials told their U.S. counterparts they were upset about being kept in the dark on Iran, and one of them told a former American official, “Did the administration really believe we wouldn’t find out?.”
The Administration is also irate at the fact that Israeli officials didn’t just share the secret information they had with U.S. lawmakers, but edited those briefings to omit concessions demanded of Iran, like giving up stockpiles of nuclear material, and modifying the advanced centrifuges to slow output.
“If you’re wondering whether something serious has shifted here, the answer is yes, ” a senior U.S. official told the WSJ. “These things leave scars.”
