US officials feared that Israel may have been plotting to assassinate Iran's two top negotiators during delicate ceasefire talks earlier this year, a move they believed could have collapsed the peace process, the New York Times reported, citing current and former American officials.
Washington's concerns centred on Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, both of whom were leading negotiations with the US that began in April.
While targeting senior Iranian leaders had been part of Israel's strategy from the outset of the war, American officials grew alarmed that an attempt on either official once talks were under way could reignite the fighting, the report said.
US officials were reportedly concerned enough to alert other countries in the region about the possibility that Israel could target the two men.
The war had begun on 28 February with an Israeli strike that killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other senior officials, based partly on American intelligence.
Israel had reportedly prioritised eliminating Iranian leadership in the war's early phase, killing officials including Ali Larijani and Kamal Kharazi, who were also involved in talks with Washington.
The Wall Street Journal had reported in March that Israel had placed Araghchi and Ghalibaf on a target list but temporarily withdrew them once negotiations with Iran began.
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It cited a US official and a Middle East official as saying Israel was told around that time to hold back from targeting Ghalibaf specifically.
The newspaper reported that Ghalibaf narrowly escaped being killed twice — during last year's 12-day war and again this year, when Israel struck a secret meeting of senior officials.
In April, en route back to Tehran after talks in Islamabad, Iranian security officials reportedly detected a potential Israeli threat to the aircraft carrying Ghalibaf, prompting an emergency landing in Mashhad, according to the report.
Despite the concerns, the two officials have continued travelling for talks, including meetings in Qatar and Switzerland. Israel's embassy in Washington declined to comment when approached by the newspaper.
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