President Joe Biden is “deeply concerned” about the leak of classified documents containing US assessments of Israel’s plans to attack Iran, said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Officials are not sure whether the documents were released as a result of a hack or a leak, Mr Kirby said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed the publication of the documents over the weekend. They are said to contain the movement of Israeli military equipment in preparation for a response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran said that the country is ready to face any attack by Israel.
The documents, marked top secret, were shared between the Five Eyes intelligence alliance of the US, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, CBS, the BBC’s US partner, reported.
There is no “indication” that additional documents “[find] into the community,” Mr Kirby said on Monday.
He added that President Biden “will be closely monitoring” the investigation to find out how the documents were released, and he intends to hear what steps will be taken to “prevent it from happening again”.
Israel has been deciding for weeks how and when to respond to Iran’s latest missile attack. Israel’s Defense Minister warned that it would be “lethal, precise and surprising”.
The two documents were reportedly written by the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency (NSA), and were published on an Iran-aligned Telegram account on Friday.
Johnson, a senior member of Congress, told CNN on Sunday that “the leak is very concerning”.
“There are serious allegations being made, there’s an ongoing investigation, and I’ll have an update on that in a few hours,” said the Louisiana Republican.
The Pentagon confirmed in a statement that it was aware of the reports about the documents, but did not comment further.
The US agencies involved, as well as the Israeli government, have not commented publicly.
CNN and Axios first reported on the alleged leak, which also appears to confirm that US spies in Israel are close to it.
Another document mentions Israel’s nuclear capabilities – which neither the US nor Israel have officially acknowledged – apparently rejecting the use of such an option in any planned strike.
A former US intelligence official told the BBC that the unauthorized release was probably an attempt to reveal the extent of the planned reprisals, perhaps to distract them.
The United States is investigating whether this information was intentionally leaked by an American agent, or whether it was stolen, possibly by hacking, officials told the Associated Press (AP).
The two documents appear to be based on satellite information received from 15-16 October.
The first is titled: “Israel: Air Force Continues Preparations for Strike on Iran and Conducts Second Major Power Exercise,” according to the Reuters news agency. Describes the management of ballistic and air-to-surface missiles.
The second is titled: “Israel: Defense Forces Continue Preparations of Key Weapons and Cover Up UAV Activity About Iran Strike”. Discusses Israeli drone movements.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden said he “understands well” what Israel is planning.
“Do you have a good understanding of what Israel will do right now in response to Iran… and when exactly they will respond?” asked the reporter.
“Yeah, yeah,” Biden replied.
“Can you tell us?” asked the reporter.
“No, and no.”
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