America
Israel denies spying on US nuclear talks with Iran
Jerusalem, March 25
The Israeli Government
has denied that it spied on the closed-door nuclear negotiations that
took place between Iran and Western powers, as revealed by US newspaper,
citing official sources from the White House.
In an interview
with Israel's Army Radio, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on
Tuesday underlined that the report released by the US publisher is
"wrong" and "inaccurate."
"Obviously Israel has different
security interests than the US and we have a good Intelligence Service,"
Lieberman added, stressing at the same time that Israel does not "deal
in espionage against the US."
Also, an official in Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahus' office denied the accusations made by the US
newspaper that Israel has engaged in espionage against its US ally or
any other allies, considering that these allegations are false and are
clearly designed to undermine the strong ties between the US and Israel
and their bilateral cooperation regarding exchanging information of
security related threats.
"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 US government officials.
"In addition to eavesdropping,
Israel acquired information from confidential US briefings, informants
and diplomatic contacts in Europe," the officials added.
The Wall
Street Journal has underlined that both the US 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 US intelligence agencies
spying on Israel intercepted communications among Israeli officials that
carried details the US believed could have come only from access to the
confidential talks," the US newspaper quoted officials briefed on the
matter.
Israel firmly opposed to the agreement that the Western
powers are trying to form with Iran in resolving disputes concerning its
nuclear programme, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
described as a "very bad deal."
Netanyahu, who won the Israeli
general elections last week, even confronted the Democrat US President
Barack Obama during his visit to the US Congress, at the invitation of
Republican members, on March 4, 2015, declaring his objection to the
agreement that Washington is negotiating with Iran.