JERUSALEM
Outgoing Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has denied a report that his country spied on closed-door talks between world powers and Iran over the latter's nuclear program.
"As someone who knows the intelligence community from up close for 20 years, since I was head of Military Intelligence in 1995, that there is no way, was no way, that Israel would spy on the Americans," Yaalon was quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
U.S. daily The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had spied on the nuclear talks – held between Iran and the P5+1 (the U.S., China, France, the U.K., Russia and Germany) – and passed confidential intelligence on to members of the U.S. Congress.
Yaalon, however, dismissed the report, saying that "someone apparently has an interest in stoking conflict or bringing a negative twist to relations" between the U.S. Israel.
"No Israeli intelligence organization spies on the Americans," he claimed.
"This does not mean there are no divisions [between the U.S. and Israel]. There are divisions at times. Sometimes we see things differently, but there are channels to smooth over differences," he added.
Outgoing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman likewise dismissed the newspaper report.
"This report is not true. Obviously, Israel has security interests to defend and we have our own intelligence. But we do not spy on the United States," Lieberman was quoted as saying by Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
"There are enough participants in these negotiations, including the Iranians," he said. "We got our intelligence from other sources, not from the U.S. The instruction has been clear for decades now: you don't spy on the U.S., directly or indirectly."
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed both houses of U.S. Congress, where he urged lawmakers to oppose a proposed nuclear deal with Iran.
Netanyahu's controversial speech came at the invitation of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.
The White House, meanwhile, was not officially informed of the invitation, irking Obama administration officials who described the Israeli premier's address as a "breach of protocol."
