US officials believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has authorized his government to release secret details of the US nuclear negotiations with Iran to the Israeli press, according to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.
The alleged leaks would appear designed to undermine the negotiations, which Israel opposes.
In response, according to Ignatius, the US has decided to "reduce the exchange of sensitive information about the Iran talks" with Israel.
This would be a major new low in the US-Israel breakdown
It is important to note that Ignatius does not detail his sources for the story, and has no official confirmation from either the Israeli or American governments. The columnist is known as a non-partisan reporter with a strong track record and close links in US intelligence agencies, so his report is so far being taken seriously.
The alleged leaks are, to be clear, not highly sensitive secrets. Rather, they are technical details of the US offers to Iran in the nuclear talks, such as the number of centrifuges that Iran would be allowed to maintain. (The details of negotiations are always kept secret while they're being hammered out, so that all parties can negotiate more freely, something Israeli negotiators have done themselves, for example in reaching the Oslo Accords.)
Ignatius' sources contend that the Israeli leaks were not only secret but misleading, releasing incomplete information in a way that would make the US position on Iran appear more generous than it actually was. Those sources also point out that Israeli media began publishing these secrets in late January, just days after Obama and Netanyahu had a contentious Jan. 12 phone call over the Iran talks. Also in that window, Netanyahu announced he would visit the US to speak to Congress on a Republican invitation, undermining the White House.
The US reaction has allegedly been to reduce intelligence sharing with Israel. "US officials believed that Netanyahu's office was the source of these reports and concluded that they couldn't be as transparent as before with the Israel leader about the secret talks," Ignatius reports.beginning to see how we got that unholy alliance between Beohner and Netanyahu they both are deceitful and not to be trusted Netanyahu is more hell bent on destroying Iran it seems than they are Israel, but he's paling around with the wrong one both of their records will be soiled if there are any major ramifications to this disloyal deed by the prime minister i personally don't want my grand kids fighting his fight because he can't wait and all he is doing now will not sit well with the rest of the world, backfire heard around the world. and you know the republicans have a hand in it Beohner bragged about doing his job for the first time in 6 years and look what he does help betray the gov't.
hard to belittle the leading by this Pres. when their party is sticking in the notes of betrayal or should i say treason. this is the time and the thing to have a committee to find guilt by republicans of interfering were their job does not allow guess they never read the job description since they sure as hell don't know what it is.
