US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, will not return to Tel Aviv until the end of a US inquiry into suspected security violations, the US embassy told AFP Saturday.
"The ambassador will remain in Washington pending the resolution of the security investigation," said embassy spokesman Larry Schwartz, adding that the State Department was promising to resolve the issue "in a short time."
Saturday's Washington Post reported that the State Department suspended Indyk's security clearance, pending an investigation into suspected security violations.
The daily said the suspension prevents Indyk, 49, from handling classified materials and requires him to be escorted into the State Department building in Washington.
State Department officials told the Post that there was no evidence of espionage, and no reason to suspect that classified information had been compromised.
The breach reportedly entailed "the sloppy handling of classified information" over a longer period of time.
Indyk, who returned to the United States earlier this month, issued a two-paragraph statement through his lawyer promising to cooperate with the probe.
"Jeopardizing the national security interests of the United States is absolutely abhorrent to me, and I would never do anything to compromise those interests," he said, according to the daily - JERUSALEM (AFP)
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