Israel was reportedly warned months ago about the exact scenario that just played out between Trump and Russia
"Donald Trump's upcoming inauguration as the next president of the United States is causing Israeli intelligence officials to lose sleep as well," Ronen Bergman reported for the Israeli news outlet YNet on January 12.
"Discussions held in closed forums recently raised fears of a leakage of Israeli intelligence top-classified information, clandestine modus operandi and sources, which have been exposed to the American intelligence community over the past 15 years, to Russia - and from there to Iran," the report said.
According to The Washington Post, that has played out almost exactly as feared - though it is unclear if the Russians have since relayed that intelligence to Iran.
The Post reported Monday night that Trump's disclosures to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergei Kislyak "jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State" and "had been provided by a US partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the US government."
US officials apparently briefed their Israeli counterparts before Trump's inauguration about their belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "leverages of pressure" over Trump. Trump's meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak last week, during which he disclosed the Israeli intelligence, was reportedly requested by Putin.
Bergman reported:
"All of you are familiar with the threat from ISIS," McMaster said. "All of you are very familiar with the territory it controls. If you were to say, 'Hey, from where do you think a threat might come, from territory that ISIS controls, you would probably be able to name a few cities."
"It had all to do with operations that were already ongoing and had been made public for months," McMaster claimed.
But the information Trump relayed to the Russian diplomats was reportedly "code-word" information - one of the highest classification levels used by the US intelligence community.
Reached for comment, Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer told the Times that "Israel has full confidence in our intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States and looks forward to deepening that relationship in the years ahead under President Trump."
More from Natasha Bertrand:
- Trump's national security adviser: He 'wasn't even aware' of where information he shared with Russians came from
- Trump's national security adviser: He 'wasn't even aware' of where information he shared with Russians came from
- McCain issues blistering statement about 'deeply disturbing' conversation between Trump and Russians
- National security experts: Trump's sharing classified info with Russia 'may breach his oath of office'
- An FBI director has been fired only once before - and it was under dramatically different circumstances