WikiLeaks: Rabbi Held Back-Channel Talks With Iran

A rabbi spoke this week of his deep regret that his secret negotiations with the Iranian regime had been published by WikiLeaks.

For the past 16 years, Rabbi Herschel Gluck of Stoke Newington has been involved in back-channel shuttle diplomacy. They were held with Ayatollah Syed Salman Safavi, brother of the military adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei, Rehman Safavi, and related specifically to the fate of Israeli hostages thought to be held by Hizbollah or Hamas.

The talks are understood to have taken place with the blessing of the Israeli government, and were designed to try to establish what may have happened to the airman, Ron Arad, and to the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

But Rabbi Gluck described WikiLeaks' decision to publish unredacted details of his discussions with Iranian leaders, said to have been held with the knowledge of both Israel and the United States, as "deeply irresponsible". "There is no way that this type of material should be allowed into the public domain," he said. "I understand the argument about transparency but when people's lives are at stake, that is a totally different ballgame."

Rabbi Gluck fears, WikiLeaks have gone too far

h/t VIN news