Kerry Says US Surveillance Not Targeted Against Hollande

US surveillance activities are not directed against French President Francois Hollande, although they can potentially target foreign states if national security is at risk, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in the wake of revelations of US spying on three French leaders.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Tuesday, the WikiLeaks website published documents leaked by former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, pertaining to the agency’s interception of communications of Hollande and former French presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac.

"We are not targeting President Hollande," Kerry told reporters on Wednesday, adding that the United States does not conduct foreign intelligence unless there is a "validated national security purpose."

On Wednesday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told the French TF1 TV channel that more leaks were coming with information more important than the documents already released.

Assange stressed that US surveillance is a threat to the sovereignty of Europe and urged France to take the lead and take legal action over US spying.

US intelligence gathering practices were at the center of a major scandal in 2013, when Snowden revealed that the NSA was snooping on world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Over the past years, documents published by Snowden have revealed US surveillance practices on many world leaders, as well as on millions of American citizens — without a court warrant.