Full story
Plot denial and context
US officials feared Israel might assassinate Iranian negotiators during talks this spring, with the warnings focused on Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office rejected the allegation, posting on X that "As usual, The New York Times' latest story about Israel and the Iranian negotiators is fake news" and calling it "A complete fabrication of reality."
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi later corroborated the US media reports, saying Washington warned Tehran that Israel may have had its chief negotiators on a target list during April talks in Islamabad.
Those April talks produced a framework deal signed on 17 June, and the two countries are now in a 60-day extended ceasefire meant to allow negotiations toward a final agreement.
The dispute sits against a wider war that began on 28 February, when US-Israeli strikes on Tehran resulted in the deaths of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior officials.
Quotes, security measures, and divergence
CNN said the US warnings were communicated through intermediaries and that there were no immediate indications on Friday that US intelligence had knowledge of a specific plot that prompted the warning.
In response to The New York Times story, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office wrote on X: "As usual, The New York Times’ latest story about Israel and the Iranian negotiators is fake news. A complete fabrication of reality."
Euronews reported that Araghchi, in an interview with Iranian state television on Friday, said, "We are Iranians, we don't fear death for our nation."
Euronews also described an April episode in which Pakistani fighter jets escorted the Iranian delegation’s aircraft from the Iranian border to Islamabad and back, and said the Iranian aircraft made an emergency landing in Mashhad amid an Israeli military threat.
The same Euronews account said the US and Israeli governments have not directly addressed the assassination plot allegations.
What’s at stake next
The Washington Post said senior U.S. officials feared Israel intended to assassinate Iran’s top negotiators as the Trump administration pursued a high-stakes deal to end the war there and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
CNN said targeting Ghalibaf or Araghchi might have upended very tenuous talks, and it noted that the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding calling for a 60-day ceasefire while leaving issues like the fate of Iran’s nuclear stockpile for later talks.
Euronews reported that the talks in Islamabad were mediated in part by US Vice President JD Vance and that the framework deal was signed on 17 June to halt the war.
The NDTV account said the operation was reportedly based in part on US intelligence and described the war beginning on February 28 with an Israeli strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several other senior officials.
In the background of the ceasefire, CNN said Iran has fired on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the US has retaliated with strikes on Iranian targets, keeping pressure on the negotiations.
