.@statedeptspox on leak of purported xcript of Obama/Bibi call: "If true, would be a severe violation of a private diplomatic discussion.”
— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) July 29, 2014
The transcript of a phone call between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allegedly been leaked to Israel’s Channel 1, prompting the U.S. State Department to call the leak “a severe violation of a private diplomatic discussion.”
An English transcript of the alleged phone call can be found at the Times of Israel. As translated by the Times, the call begins:
Barack Obama: I demand that Israel agrees to an immediate, unilateral ceasefire and halt all offensive activities, in particular airstrikes.
Benjamin Netanyahu: And what will Israel receive in exchange for a ceasefire?
BO: I believe that Hamas will cease its rocket fire — silence will be met with silence.
BN: Hamas broke all five previous ceasefires. It’s a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
BO: I repeat and expect Israel to stop all its military activities unilaterally. The pictures of destruction in Gaza distance the world from Israel’s position.
The White House has told The Daily Beast’s Eli Lake that the transcript is a fake.
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WH tells @EliLake the transcript is fake. NSC spox just told me the same thing: pic.twitter.com/uBOZW3n006
— Armin Rosen (@ArminRosen) July 29, 2014
The White House’s Ben Rhodes adds:
This "transcript of POTUS-PM call" report is totally false
— Ben Rhodes -Archived (@rhodes44) July 29, 2014
Also denying the veracity of the transcript: the president’s National Security Council.
We have seen reports of an alleged POTUS-Netanyahu transcript; neither reports nor alleged transcript bear any resemblance to reality 1/2
— Obama NSC- Archived (@NSC44) July 29, 2014
Shocking and disappointing someone would sink to misrepresenting a pvt convo between POTUS and PM in fabrications to Israeli press 2/2
— Obama NSC- Archived (@NSC44) July 29, 2014
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