The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the National Security Agency (NSA) swept up information that White House officials considered valuable as it sought to counter Netanyahu`s vocal opposition to the nuclear deal between Iran, the U.S. and other world leaders.
Netanyahu reportedly remained a top priority for the snooping, according to the report, despite President Obama saying two years ago he would curb eavesdropping on allies.
The Journal also reported that White House officials were worried about the politics of asking for swept-up communications between Israeli officials and members of Congress, allowing the NSA to decide what to share.
"We didn`t say, `Do it,` " a senior U.S. official told the Journal. "We didn`t say, `Don`t do it.` "
NSA snooping allegedly found Netanyahu and his aides leaked details of the negotiations gained through Israeli spying, coordinated talking points with Jewish-American groups against the deal and asked those lawmakers who were undecided on the deal how it could get their vote, according to the report.
The Obama administration decided to shield leaders including French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other North Atlantic Treat Organization (NATO) heads from NSA snooping, according to the report, while it omitted some including Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Obama maintained the monitoring of Netanyahu as it served a "compelling national security purpose," the newspaper reported, citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials.
Netanyahu spoke out against a potentially unsatisfactory nuclear deal during a speech to a joint session of Congress in March. The U.S. and five other world powers reached a deal in July.
The Israeli leader has previously criticized U.S. spying on Israel, which was revealed in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.
