© Reuters
In the run-up to President Barack Obama's controversial nuclear deal with Iran, the U.S. military under the Obama administration reportedly used American spy satellites to monitor Israel Defense Force actions
out of concern that the Jewish state would strike Iran's nuclear program.
The detail was contained in an extensive
New York Times Magazine story titled "The Secret History of the Push to Strike Iran." The story says it is based on accounts with "dozens of current and former American, Israeli and European officials," including many top American and Israeli officials cited on the record.
The piece documents the fractured relationship between Israel and the Obama administration on a host of issues, especially disagreements over the emerging nuclear talks with Iran.
The Israeli government was initially kept in the dark about the early talks that eventually became the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the deal that President Trump would later withdraw from.
The Times reported that Obama saw the JCPOA as the "centerpiece of his foreign-policy legacy." For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, the newspaper reported that the deal would, according to
The Times' characterization, "be the ultimate betrayal — Israel's closest ally negotiating behind its back with its most bitter enemy."
The newspaper reported that in the lead up to the talks, the Obama administration spied on Israeli military movements near Iran.
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