The current and former US officials believed that Israel might have been plotting to assassinate Iran's top negotiators during sensitive ceasefire talks this spring, the US daily The New York Times has reported.
The newspaper, citing American officials, said on Thursday that Washington was concerned that Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf could have been targeted when Pakistan-mediated negotiations intensified in April.
According to the report, the Trump administration was so concerned that it asked other countries in the region to warn Tehran about the possibility that Israel could attack the two officials.
US officials reportedly believed any assassination attempt after negotiations began in earnest in April would have ended the talks and reignited the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The report said Washington learned that at least Ghalibaf had been placed on an Israeli target list and urged Israel not to proceed.
It also cited Iranian officials as saying Tehran sought US guarantees, through Pakistani and Qatari intermediaries, that Israel would not attack its negotiating team during diplomatic meetings.
The report detailed an April incident in which Ghalibaf’s return flight from Islamabad diverted to Mashhad after Iranian security forces detected two Israeli jets breaching the Iranian airspace.
Ali Khamenei’s funeral
A US official told the newspaper that talks between the American and Iranian delegations are continuing and that President Donald Trump wants the peace process "to play out."
Trump reiterated that the US is not seeking change of government in Iran, saying Washington's objective remains preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
"We're not looking for regime change. I'm looking for something very simple: they cannot have a nuclear weapon," he said in an interview with CNBC.
Trump also defended recent US military action against Iran, saying the country had been "totally defeated militarily."
"I've defeated them militarily. They're totally defeated militarily. They have some missiles left, we could wipe them out too, and I hit them three times last week very hard, because they sent a drone into a ship," he said.
Meanwhile, Qatari and Pakistani mediators said on Thursday that the next round of US-Iran talks would be held "at the earliest possible time," after the funeral ceremonies for Iran's former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in US-Israeli strikes on February 28, with funeral ceremonies scheduled to run from July 4 through July 9.
