"Pentagon raises Israel's threat of espionage to "critical" levels – media reports this decision falls under expanding tension between the US and Israel against the background of conflicts in the mediate East."

The defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) at the Pentagon raised to the highest level the threat assessment of Israeli spy activities in the face of rising tensions around Iran and Lebanon, reported NBC News and the fresh York Times on Saturday.

According to NBC, this assessment, which has been carried out internally in fresh weeks, includes a seven-page paper and a illustration classifying Israeli individual and method intelligence capabilities as ‘critical’.

According to the NYT, the officials targeted included: president Donald Trump's chief negotiator for talks with Iran – Steve Witkoff, a high-ranking Pentagon authoritative liable for politics – Elbridge Colby, and 1 of his chief deputies – Michael DiMino.

Both NBC and ‘NYT’ – citing their sources – they study that American counterintelligence is increasingly afraid about Israeli spy activities in the US, including attempts to gain insight into Trump's administration's meetings on Iran and Lebanon.

The study is besides intended to list respective circumstantial incidents, although sources have refused to disclose them.

‘NYT’ cites the words of a high-ranking authoritative who described the aggressiveness of Israeli intelligence services in surveillance of leading US officials since Trump's second word as "crazy."

Although spying between allies is simply a common phenomenon, the study states that Israel's fresh actions go beyond accepted standards, leading to an increased hazard assessment.

The Pentagon refused to comment.

The White home typical told NBC that “The full communicative is false”, A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. found reports ‘politically motivated’, stressing that the actions of Israeli intelligence "are aimed at enemies, not allies."

These reports appear during the increasing tensions between the president of the United States Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Iran and Israeli military operations in Lebanon.

Despite the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, agreed in early April and extended on 8 May, negotiations for a broader agreement on Iran's atomic programme have been stalled;

Israel publically questions Trump's diplomatic efforts, and Netanjahu advocates resuming military action.

At the same time, Israel intensified operations in Lebanon, where he began military action against Iran-related Hezbollah movement in March.

Earlier this week Trump confirmed reports that he called Netanjah "a fucking madman” during a heated telephone conversation about Israel’s actions in Lebanon.

‘Yes’ – said Trump, asked about this exchange in the podcast ‘Under Force One’ diary "New York Post".

– "I was a small annoyed by his constant clashes with Lebanon".

Previous reports show that Trump abandoned Netanjahu to jeopardize U.S. negotiations with Iran by continuing operations in Lebanon.

On Monday, Trump stated that both the Israeli leader and Hezbollah agreed to a truce, and on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department reported that Israel and Lebanon agreed to ceasefire provided ‘total cessation’ attacks by Hezbollah and withdrawing militants from the area south of the Litani River.

Despite these announcements, armed action continued this week;

According to the Lebanese medical authorities, Thursday's attacks of Israel in confederate and east Lebanon caused deaths and injuries in tens of civilians.

Iran had previously announced that it would not agree to a lasting agreement with the US unless it besides covered Lebanon, and warned that it would retreat from negotiations if Israeli attacks continued.

Translated by Google Translator

source:https://www.rt.com/news/641108-pentagon-israel-spying-threat/