US warned Iran of Araghchi, Ghalibaf's possible assassinations by Israel: Report
US warned Iran in April that Israel may target top officials during nuclear talks, highlighting growing tensions between Washington and Israel.
The New York Times published an explosive report yesterday (2 July), signalling that the relationship between the US and Israel was worsening much before the reports last month of fiery phone calls between Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the NYT report, which cites multiple US officials, Washington warned Tehran in April that Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, and Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, were targets of assassination by Israel.
The officials quoted in the report said that some US officials believed then that Israel was planning to pull off assassinations of Araghchi and Ghalibaf in the weeks after the first ceasefire on 8 April.
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Washington DC believed then that Araghchi and Ghalibaf, selected by the country at the time to take part in the nuclear talks with the US, could have been Israel's "legitimate targets." The concerns came as Israel executed a series of assassinations in Iran, including that of the late Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
Details of potential assassination attempts
The New York Times report claimed that US officials believed that Israel was planning to target Iran's Speaker Ghalibaf as he returned from Islamabad, Pakistan, to Tehran on 12 April, after talks with US Vice President JD Vance.
US authorities informed Tehran that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iranian airspace via Iraq and were planning to target Ghalibaf's plane as he was flying back.
Tehran immediately communicated the intel to the plane and Ghalibaf made an emergency landing in Mashhad, in Iran's northern province, instead of taking its usual course to Tehran, the report added.
