Administration officials have denied reports that it has been withholding information about the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran from their Israeli counterparts, The New York Times reported yesterday.

For its part, the Obama administration has been issuing strong denials that it is holding anything back. Alistair C. Baskey, a spokesman for the National Security Council, called the most recent report of a breakdown in communication, broadcast on Israel’s Channel 2, “patently false” and said that Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, “maintains regular contact with her Israeli counterpart,” Yossi Cohen. Mr. Cohen is coming to Washington in the next few days, and one of Ms. Rice’s top aides on the Middle East, Philip Gordon, has been in Israel this week, partly to talk about Iran. …

When Israeli officials start discussing the details of the current negotiations — from how long an agreement would stay in place before Iran would be free to produce as much enriched uranium as it wants to the proposed engineering changes to a heavy-water reactor that could produce bomb-grade plutonium — the officials seem quite up-to-date.

The Times story cited a European Union diplomat, who articulated concerns about sharing all details of the American negotiating position with Israel:

One recalled a recent call from Wendy Sherman, the No. 3 State Department official and lead American negotiator with Iran, saying she had cautioned against telling the Israelis too much because the details could be twisted to undermine a deal. Ms. Sherman did not respond to an email inquiry, but a State Department official speaking on her behalf said that she had encouraged the Europeans to talk with Israel — as long as they were cognizant “that the negotiation should take place in the negotiating room.”

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius earlier in the week cited administration concerns, stemming from a leak attributed to Israel, that the United States would allow Iran to keep 6,500 centrifuges. However, in November a website associated with Iran’s foreign ministry had already reported that the “Obama administration has agreed to allow Iran to operate 6,000 centrifuges.”

Earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported that “the Europeans suspect that Washington is operating behind Brussels’ back and that Kerry has not bothered to keep them in the loop in his talks with Zarif.” The Post also cited the figure of 6,500 centrifuges being offered as part of a final deal and attributed it to European diplomatic sources.

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