Al-Sharq al-Awsat, London, Originally posted in Arabic on June 17
The media has been full of reports of alleged Israeli spying on the nuclear talks with Iran. The information that was leaked from the talks, attributed to the American and Iranian negotiation teams, left many in the international community quite shocked. In fact, the far-reaching concessions that the United States supposedly agreed upon were made available to all, including those who oppose the agreement in Congress. It is because of these leaks that President Obama invited members of the Gulf Cooperation Council to Camp David just two weeks ago, where he attempted to quell their anger. The question we are left with now is whether there are any secrets left in the negotiations. Reports suggested that Israel broke into computer networks of Swiss hotels in order to access the information, and that the networks are now protected. But this is not quite possible. The negotiation teams are not dumb enough to allow computers in rooms hosting sensitive discussions. It is much more likely that the information was leaked by one of the team members and given to the Israelis in order to abrogate the success of the talks. In fact, all of the talk about computer networks might have just been a decoy used by the Israelis to divert attention away from the snitch. Whether there are more secrets left in the negotiations with Iran or not – only time will tell. In the meantime, it seems like the Americans and Israelis are very good actors so far. – Abd al-Rahman al-Rashed