President Trump disclosed classified information provided by Israel during a talk with top Russian officials in the Oval Office, The New York Times reported Monday. As originally reported by the Washington Post, Trump shared the information with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak last week during their visit to the White House. According to the Times, the new revelation adds new foreign policy kindling onto the fire of an already explosive fallout. Israel is one of the United States’ most important allies and and intelligence collectors in the Middle East, and the information could easily pass to Iran, a close ally of Russia and one of Israel's main threats. Israeli officials did not confirm the information's origin. Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said the two countries will in any case maintain a close counterterrorism relationship. “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,” Dermer said. Trump doubled down on Tuesday morning, tweeting that he had the "absolute right" to share the facts he divulged. “As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety,” Trump wrote. “Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
