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U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman (L) and Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen (R).
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman (L) and Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen (R).
After having revealed Tel Aviv's espionage - the WSJ dismisses the sabotage. Worse still, it makes no attempt to investigate who, among the highly-placed US government officials with direct access to the negotiations, has been spying for Israel. This essay attempts to address this question by identifying the most likely suspects.
We will proceed by describing the seriousness of the crime by noting the centrality of the US-Iran negotiations for US global politics and the enormous damage, which has resulted from Israel's securing secret documents, reports and proceedings of the talks and having a highly placed agent among the US diplomats.
The Significance of the US-Iran Negotiations
The negotiations between the major powers (P5+1), composed of the five UN Security Council members plus Germany, led by the US, with Iran have proceeded for over two years. Israel is not part of the negotiating process, formally, but indirectly its presence is substantial. For Washington the stakes are very high: securing a nuclear agreement with Iran in which Teheran submits to constant and pervasive 'inspections', and dismantles a substantial part of its nuclear program, certainly weakens Iran's regional prestige and increases US influence in the region. Secondly, through the initial agreement, it is likely that Washington will move forward to deepen joint political activity with Iran in neighboring countries. Thirdly, Washington will use the agreement to isolate Syria, Lebanon (Hezbollah) and Yemen, from Iranian financial, military and diplomatic support.
Comment: Spies R Us...a thrilling "Who Dunnit" in the making! Undercover Agents, Espionage, Betrayal, Global Dominance, War of the Century, Humanity in the Balance...don't we all live in interesting times! Don't we wish this scenario was on the cutting board of some film maker's studio instead of a real-time/real-life cliff hanger with the president but a bit character in the cover story. Unfortunately there will be no rewrites and no retakes, especially if Israel manages to pull off the "win-win" and the US sticks to the script and predictably fulfills its supporting role.