Obama denies tapping Merkel’s mobile phone, Germany still suspicious of US
United States President Barack Obama has assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the US was not monitoring her communications, according to Jay Carney, the White House spokesman.
Carney’s statement on Wednesday comes in response to the German government’s announcement that it has obtained information suggesting the US may have tapped Merkel’s mobile phone.
Merkel called Obama to demand an immediate clarification, her spokesman said in a statement.
“She made clear that she views such practices, if proven true, as completely unacceptable and condemns them unequivocally,” the statement read.
“Between close friends and partners, as Germany and the U.S. have been for decades, there should not be such monitoring of the communications of a government leader. This would be a grave breach of trust. Such practices should be immediately stopped.”
“The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
“The United States greatly values our close cooperation with Germany on a broad range of shared security challenges.”
However, Carney did not specifically say that the US had never monitored or obtained Merkel’s communications.
The news broke as Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to Rome, faced fresh questions about mass spying on European allies, based on revelations from Edward Snowden, the fugitive ex-US intelligence operative granted asylum in Russia.
French President Francois Hollande is pressing for the US spying issue to be put on the agenda of a summit of European leaders starting on Thursday.
