Peres's contingent forgot secret documents
Peres's contingent forgot secret documentsIsrael news photo

Government officials accompanying President Shimon Peres in Kazakhstan accidentally left behind secret documents, including details of his itinerary, and threw security officials into a panic. The president’s spokeswoman confirmed to Israel National News that the documents had been forgotten and placed the source of the blunder in the Foreign Ministry, which was not available for comment.

The security blunder occurred when officials accompanying President Peres on his historic visit to the Muslim country discovered that a portfolio of sensitive documents had been left behind in the Rexus Hotel, where the Israeli delegation was staying.

Among the information in the papers were top-secret approaches to the president, details of his itinerary, his hotel room number and the identities of those accompanying him.

Security personnel’s fears were heightened by the slip-up having taken place in a Muslim country where Iranian representatives and delegates of the Arab world also were attending an interfaith conference.

One of the routes of the president’s itinerary was to the Beit Rachel synagogue, where he met on Wednesday with hundreds of members of the Jewish community in Astana. During several tense hours before the documents were recovered, security personnel put into effect an alternate itinerary in order to minimize the chances of a security leak.

President Peres’s visit has stirred up the Arab world following at least two Muslim countries’ declarations explicitly supporting his visit.