Netanyahu: US national security adviser did not share Iran attack plans with us

For second time since presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s arrival, PMO denies report about US-Israeli relations

Raphael Ahren is a former diplomatic correspondent at The Times of Israel.

President Barack Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office on July 18. Pictured, from left, are: Chris Mizelle, Director for Russia and Central Asia, NSS; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Jack Lew; and Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor. (Photo credit: White House/Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office on July 18. Pictured, from left, are: Chris Mizelle, Director for Russia and Central Asia, NSS; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Jack Lew; and Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor. (Photo credit: White House/Pete Souza)

The Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday denied a report that a senior US official recently showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the Obama administration’s plans for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“Nothing in the article is correct,” a senior PMO official told The Times of Israel on Sunday, moments after Netanyahu met with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Jerusalem.

Haaretz reporter Barak Ravid on Sunday quoted a “senior American official” saying that Netanyahu hosted US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon for a “a three-hour dinner” during which Donilon shared Washington’s contingency plans for a potential strike on Iran. Ravid wrote that Donilon’s visit in Jerusalem two weeks ago was “the most significant so far between American and Israeli officials here in recent weeks.”

The PMO official flatly denied Ravid’s article: “Donilon did not meet the prime minister for dinner, he did not meet him one-on-one, nor did he present operational plans to attack Iran,” the senior official said.

The Haaretz story was the second article coinciding with Romney’s visit to Israel that the PMO has denied. Netanyahu’s office denied an Associated Press report on Saturday in which US intelligence officials alleged that Israel had spied on CIA staff stationed in Israel and which called Jerusalem’s alleged spy activity frustrating and a “genuine counter-intelligence threat.”

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