During delicate ceasefire negotiations between the United States and Iran earlier this year, Trump administration officials grew convinced that Israel was actively plotting to assassinate Iran's lead negotiators—including the foreign minister—in a bid to scuttle any diplomatic progress, according to a report from The New York Times.
The newspaper, citing unnamed current and former American officials, reported Thursday that US concerns centered on two specific Iranian figures: Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament. The US went so far as to ask other countries in the region to warn Tehran about the possibility that Israel might target the two officials, the Times said.
The revelations come amid a broader US-Iran rapprochement that has alarmed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. The US and Israel have killed dozens of top Iranian officials since late February, when their joint military campaign began. But in late March, the two allies reportedly removed Araghchi and Ghalibaf from their target list, opening a window for high-level talks to end the war.
Dramatic Incident Over Pakistan
The Times detailed one particularly dramatic episode in April, when Ghalibaf was planning to travel to Islamabad to meet with US Vice President JD Vance. Pakistani fighter jets escorted the Iranian airplanes carrying a delegation of more than 70 Iranians from the Iranian border to Islamabad and back again.
But on the return leg to Tehran, an Israeli security threat emerged. Iran's security forces notified Ghalibaf's plane that they had intelligence indicating Israel planned to attack the aircraft, and that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iranian airspace from the western border near Iraq, according to two officials cited by the Times. The plane made an emergency landing in Mashhad, Iran's closest airport to the Pakistani border, and the delegation traveled some eight hours by land back to Tehran. Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Ghalibaf who accompanied him to Islamabad, confirmed this account on social media.
The Washington Post later corroborated the Times reporting, noting that cracks had emerged between the US and Israeli approaches to the war after Israel's assassination of top Iranian national security official Ali Larijani in March. President Trump himself acknowledged the problem, telling reporters in late March: "They've wiped out everybody," suggesting Israel's assassination campaign was making it difficult to find potential negotiating partners.
Netanyahu's Political Calculus
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote in response to the new reporting that "Israel is a state that, on paper, is a US partner, but in reality is so extreme in its obsession to undermine US diplomacy that it even tries to assassinate those the US engages with in crucial negotiations." Parsi added: "I can't recall a government as terrified of peace as the one running Israel."
The Israeli government's actions are now endangering tenuous US-Iran peace talks, with Iran highlighting Israel's continued occupation of and assault on Lebanon as a key factor in the negotiations. Visiting occupied southern Lebanon earlier this week, Netanyahu declared to Israeli troops that "our insistence is that we will not leave … until the threat is removed."
Parsi wrote that beyond Netanyahu's long-standing desire to use American force to subjugate Iran to Israeli domination, the prime minister now has stark political and personal reasons to restart the war. "The [US and Iran's memorandum of understanding] has come at a steep political cost for Netanyahu," Parsi noted. "His prospects for reelection in October are weaker than they have been in months. Once seen as the Israeli leader uniquely capable of delivering President Trump, he now confronts the prospect that both the war and the ensuing diplomacy will leave Israel in a strategically weaker position—undermining the very case he has made for his leadership."
The developments underscore the fragility of the US-Iran peace process, which has already faced multiple spoilers. For a deeper look at the broader diplomatic landscape, see our analysis of spoilers threatening the US-Iran peace process. The tensions also echo the historical pattern of external actors sabotaging negotiations, as explored in ancient peace lessons for the US-Iran deal.
