Israel Matzav

Israel knew....

Buzfeed's Sheera Frenkel reports that Israel knew that the US was holding back channel talks with Iran. Our government was told by the Saudis.

“We did not know from the beginning, but we knew, we had intelligence that these meetings were happening,” said the Israeli minister, who spoke to BuzzFeed by phone from his Jerusalem office. He said that a “friend in the Gulf” shared intelligence with Israel that the meetings were taking place, and urged Israel to find out more. “I would like to say we knew the content of the talks, but we didn’t. What we knew was that the U.S. was choosing not to tell us about them and that was very worrying.”

That “friend,” one foreign ministry official said, was Saudi Arabia, which along with Israel has most strongly objected to the nuclear deal reached between Iran and the West over the weekend. 

...

Senior Israeli cabinet minister Silvan Shalom was asked about the secret talks on Israel’s national radio Sunday, and appeared to confirm that Israel had found out about the talks through its own means. When asked what Israel knew and when, Shalom answered: “It is not important whether or not we were informed. What is important is if we knew, and we did know.”

One Israeli lawmaker from Netanyahu’s party said that Israel’s leadership was “furious … we felt like we were being stabbed in the back.”

“There was never a great love or warmth between Obama and Netanyahu but after we confirmed that they were seeking to hide talks with Iran from us there was distrust and suspicion in the relationship,” said the lawmaker.

U.S. officials told AP that the discussions were kept hidden even from the U.S.’s closest friends, including its negotiating partners and Israel, until two months ago, and that may explain how the nuclear accord appeared to come together so quickly after years of stalemate and fierce hostility between Iran and the West.

There's more. Read the whole thing. This deal is the latest manifestation of the Obama administration stabbing allies in the back.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Honduras, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:54 PM