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A senior US Department of Defense official of Iranian origin, Ariane Tabatabai, has reportedly been linked to the alleged leak of classified documents detailing Israel's plan to attack Iran. The report by Sky News Arabia has cited a Pentagon official linking Tabatabai to the leak.

A senior US Department of Defense official of Iranian origin, Ariane Tabatabai, has reportedly been linked to the alleged leak of classified documents detailing Israel's plan to attack Iran. The report by Sky News Arabia cites an unnamed Pentagon official linking Tabatabai to the leak.

"The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community," the FBI said in a statement to the Washington Post, which reported first on the FBI's acknowledgement of the leak.

Two top secret document containing the United States' assessment of Israel's plan to attack Iran appeared on an Iranian Telegram channel on Friday (October 18). The documents contained reports based on satellite images prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. It had details on Israel's retaliation plans against Iran after the airstrike earlier this month.

John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesman, said that President Joe Biden is "deeply concerned" with the leak.

Who Is Ariane Tabatabai?

Ariane Tabatabai is a senior policy advisor at the United States Department of Defense. She has a PhD from Kings College, London.

Before joining the Defense Department, she was a researcher at RAND Corporation and taught as a faculty at the Georgetown University.

According to reports, after the allegations linking her to the leak surfaced, an internal review was conducted to assess is she posed a security threat. She has retained her top-secret security clearance at the US Department of Defense after the review, even as the FBI continue to investigate the case.

Linking Tabatabai's name to the alleged leak by Sky News Arabia has been called "irresponsible reporting" by Fox News' Pentagon correspondent, Jennifer Griffin.

She said that she has spoken to Tabatabai after the report and she confirmed to Griffin that she has not been contacted by investigator and still has her security clearance. "This story is NOT TRUE," Griffin said in a post on X.