President Barack Obama has a new surveillance controversy on his hands.

The U.S. spied on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the Iran nuclear negotiations, prior to the landmark deal that was signed in July.

The Wall Street Journal reports that White House officials gathered information on Netanyahu that would help them counter his campaign to block the deal.

The NSA monitored Netanyahu's communications with his senior aides, as well as members of Congress and Jewish groups in the U.S., the report said.

A spokesman for the White House declined to comment on the matter directly while asserting the government's policy of conducting foreign surveillance if there is a 'specific and validated national security purpose.'

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President Barack Obama has a new surveillance controversy on his hands. The U.S. spied on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, during the Iran nuclear negotiations, prior to the landmark deal that was signed in July

The NSA monitored Netanyahu's communications with his senior aides, as well as members of Congress and Jewish groups in the U.S., the report said

The controversy one comes less than two months after Netanyahu's last visit to the White House. The two leaders met in the Oval Office in November for their first sit-down since the completion of the nuclear accord with Iran

The revelation that Members of Congress were caught up in the dragnet raised fears within the Obama administration that it would be accused of spying on Congress, with one official referring to it as an 'oh s*** moment'.

Obama apologized last year for spying on U.S. allies after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden fled the country and released a trove of classified information about its surveillance operations.

U.S. officials who spoke to the Journal said Obama felt there was a 'compelling national security purpose' to monitor Netanyahu during the Iran deal, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The NSA began keeping tabs on the Israeli Prime Minister late in Obama's first term in office. The surveillance was driven by fears that Israel was planning an attack on Iran.

The agency carried on with its spying operations, and discovered that Netanyahu had leaked details of the Iran negotiations - which could have jeopardized the deal - and had coordinated talks with American Jewish groups. He also asked undecided U.S.lawmakers what it would take to win their vote.

Realizing the spying could cause the administration headaches, the White House left it up to the NSA to decide what to share, and the agency obliged, deleting names of Members and 'trash talk' on the administration.

A spokesman for the Embassy of Israel in Washington told the Journal the allegations 'are total nonsense.'

National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement: 'We do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike.'

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said this morning that the situation 'might be worse' than the Journal's report disclosed.

The NSA began keeping tabs on the Israeli Prime Minister late in Obama's first term in office. The surveillance was driven by fears that Israel was planning an attack on Iran

'I want to be very careful. I’m on, a member of the Intelligence Committee, so obviously I want to be very careful of what I say about information of this kind,' Rubio, a GOP presidential candidate, said during an appearance on Fox and Friends. 'Obviously people read this report, they have a right to be concerned this morning about it.'

Those concerns are 'legitimate,' he said, according to Politico, but said, 'We have to be very careful about how we discuss it, especially since there’s a press report that I don’t think gets the entire story.'

He then said, 'I actually think it might be worse than what some people might think, but this is an issue that we’ll keep a close eye on.'

The accusations could prove damaging to Obama during his final year in office. He's been dogged by surveillance controversies throughout his two terms.

The latest one comes less than two months after Netanyahu's last visit to the White House. The two leaders met in November in the Oval Office for their first sit-down since the completion of the nuclear accord with Iran.

They notably did not take questions from the press before or after their talk, which was meant to thaw tensions between the two men following Obama's dogged pursuit of the international agreement with Israel's sworn enemy, Iran.

Two years before Snowden revealed the vast extent of the NSA's surveillance, causing a rift a between Obama and multiple world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A year ago Obama promised to scale back spying on U.S. allies.

The administration permitted the NSA to continue targeting other leaders, however, such as Netanyahu, and top aides to Merkel.

In a lengthy commentary on the United States' relationship with Israel in response to the Journal's piece, Price said, 'When it comes to Israel, President Obama has said repeatedly that the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security is sacrosanct. This message has always been backed by concrete actions that demonstrate the depth of U.S. support for Israel.'