This handout photo released by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shows President Donald Trump meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 10, 2017. The Washington Post is reporting that Trump revealed highly classified information about Islamic State militants to Russian officials during a meeting at the White House last week. The newspaper cites current and former U.S. officials who say Trump jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on IS in his conversations with the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador to the U.S. They say Trump offered details about an IS terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft.(Russian Foreign Ministry via AP)

Donald Trump asserts ‘absolute right’ to leak to Russia

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The President’s defiant defense on Wednesday morning (AEST) comes amid reports that a former US official familiar the intelligence has revealed the leaked classified information was provided by Israel.

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The claims that the source of the intelligence was Israel, first reported by The New York Times, raises potential diplomatic problems for Mr Trump, who is this week preparing to make his first Presidential overseas trip to the United States’ closest Middle Eastern ally.

To complicate matters further, Russia has a close relationship with Iran, Israel’s fiercest opponent in the region.

Israeli officials would neither confirm nor deny to the NYT the assertions of an unnamed former US official familiar with how information was obtained that Israel was the source of the intelligence.

“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,” Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said in a statement.

Read the article in The New Daily.