According to the Wall Street Journal report published on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama privately maintained the monitoring of Netanyahu on the grounds that it served as a “compelling national security purpose.”
Obama announced two years ago that he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned of the long-secret US surveillance programs but Bibi apparently remained exempt.
In Netanyahu's case, the WSJ report said, Washington was particularly concerned that Israel might be monitoring US negotiations with Iran as part of talks with the world powers to derail the effort to reach an accord on Tehran's nuclear program.
