(Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu categorically denied a media report that Israel likely had planted listening devices found in sensitive locations in Washington.
“A blatant lie,” Netanyahu’s office said in response to the report. “There is a longstanding commitment and a directive from the Israeli government not to engage in any intelligence operations in the U.S. This directive is strictly enforced without exception.”
Politico, citing three former U.S. officials, reported Thursday that the U.S. has concluded within the past two years that Israel was probably responsible for putting cell-phone surveillance devices near the White House and other locations in the U.S. capital.
President Donald Trump, a strong supporter of Israel and of Netanyahu, called the accusation “hard to believe.”
“I don’t believe that, no, I don’t think the Israelis were spying on us,” Trump said outside the White House on Thursday evening. “My relationship with Israel has been great. You look at Golan Heights, you look at Jerusalem, with moving the embassy to Jerusalem, becoming the capital, you look at even the Iran deal, what’s happened with Iran.”
Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, which had been fiercely opposed by Netanyahu.
“I wouldn’t believe that story,” the president said of the Politico report. “Anything’s possible, but I don’t believe it.”
Israel was embroiled in a espionage case in the U.S. decades ago. Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, was convicted of passing classified information to Israel and served 30 years in prison before being paroled in 2015.
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