MOSCOW, August 3 (RIA Novosti) – Israeli intelligence tapped the phone of US Secretary of State John Kerry while he was brokering a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority last year, German Der Spiegel reported Sunday citing its intelligence sources.
Apart from Israel, the talks were intercepted by at least one more country, the name of which remains unknown.
Kerry was frequently negotiating with his partners over the phone, using not only encrypted phone lines but also ordinary satellite phones the signal from which was not encrypted and thus intercepted.
The information was later handed over to the Israeli leadership and used during the negotiations.
The US Department of State and Israel have so far refused to give comments regarding the wiretap.
Direct reconciliation talks between Israel and Palestine started in July 2013 and were mediated by Kerry.
According to Kerry’s roadmap, the negotiations were to last up to nine months with a peace deal to be reached by the two sides by April 29. The efforts however, hit a snag with no significant progress in sight to broker a permanent accord.
Both sides blamed each other for the impasse in the talks.
