U.S. Issued Unprecedented Warning to Iran Over Israeli Assassination Plots

The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration, fearing the loss of key diplomatic partners, took the unprecedented step of warning Iran about Israeli plans to target two top officials.

Diplomatic Backchannels at Risk

Current and former U.S. officials state that the Trump administration feared Israel intended to eliminate Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Both men were considered essential contacts for Washington in negotiations regarding the end of the war and the resumption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Washington’s objection to the potential assassinations was so severe that the U.S. engaged intermediaries this spring to warn Tehran of the planned Israeli operations. U.S. officials argued that killing these specific figures would remove the very pragmatic voices necessary for dialogue.

Deepening U.S.-Israel Friction

According to The Washington Post, the U.S. began pressuring Israel in March to halt the targeting of Iranian political leadership as the Trump administration sought a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. The decision to warn Iran directly signals deep rifts in U.S.-Israel relations and highlights the limited influence the Trump administration has over the government in Jerusalem.

The Israeli embassy in Washington declined to comment on the report, while the White House stated only that the president desires for the peace process to continue.

Diverging Strategic Goals

Although the U.S. and Israel were initially aligned on the goal of regime change when the war began on February 28, their strategies diverged once Washington concluded the regime would remain in power. A turning point occurred in mid-March with the death of Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s national security council, which cost the U.S. a vital point of contact.

Israeli officials and pro-Israel lobbies in Washington criticized the resulting peace framework, arguing it abandoned the goal of regime change in exchange for nuclear concessions. Donald Trump himself had publicly suggested in March that Israel’s assassination campaign was complicating ongoing negotiations.