25.03.2015 - 09:03 [ Außenministerium der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika ]

Daily Press Briefing Washington, DC March 24, 2015

QUESTION: Is it correct that the Administration is upset, to say the least, with the Israelis for spying on the talks and then going to Congress and telling them what they’ve learned?

MS. PSAKI: Well, we’re not going to comment on intelligence matters, whether that’s ours or any other country’s. I can say that we continue – and we will continue – our close military intelligence and security cooperation with Israel. That has not changed.

And without giving any merit to the claims in the story, I do want to be clear that it’s absurd – an absurd notion that Congress would have to rely on any foreign government to gain insight into the nuclear negotiations with Iran. We have briefed Congress on the nuclear talks as much, or perhaps more than, any other issue. Since October of 2013, we have conducted more than 230 meetings, hearings, and calls with Senate and House members and their staffs on Iran; more than 60 of these engagements have taken place in the last four weeks. And we even offered to brief the Hill this week. So point being they receive quite a bit of information directly from the United States and senior United States officials.

QUESTION: Well, your point that it’s an absurd notion I think is exactly the point that your critics are making. Why should Congress feel that it has – that it’s not being briefed fully?

MS. PSAKI: I’m not sure —

QUESTION: You don’t know?

MS. PSAKI: Well, no. Matt, I think, one —

QUESTION: Well, you – hold on. You have said that – you, yourself, in fact, have said that the U.S. is not providing Israel with the complete details of this.

MS. PSAKI: Correct.