A previously undisclosed level of alarm swept through the Trump administration earlier this year after intelligence indicated Israel had targeted Iran’s two senior negotiators for assassination, heightening fears that such a strike could collapse fragile US-Iran peace talks, according to a report from The New York Times. The individuals placed on Israel’s target list were Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
While it had been known that the administration intervened to press Israel to remove the two officials from its list, the full scope of concern among American, Pakistani, Qatari, and Iranian officials — and Israel’s initial refusal to comply — has only now come to light, the newspaper reported.
Behind-the-Scenes Efforts to Avert a Diplomatic Crisis
The Trump administration had for months sought what officials described as a face-saving exit from the conflict with Iran. But after the United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in April, US officials grew increasingly worried that an Israeli strike on Ghalibaf and Araghchi could derail those negotiations entirely, according to the Times.
The report states that the administration warned Iran about possible Israeli attacks through intermediaries in the region, and that Iran’s own fears were so acute that officials in Tehran believed their negotiators could be struck even during face-to-face talks. According to officials cited by the Times, the Trump administration worked through multiple intermediaries to press Israel to remove Ghalibaf and Araghchi from its target list. However, Israel initially disregarded that directive, and the administration was compelled to press the issue repeatedly before Israel relented.
Even then, at least one assassination attempt went forward, the report says. That plan was foiled.
Details remain scarce, but the newspaper reported that Pakistan played a role in stopping at least one of the attempts, with Pakistani and US officials cooperating to prevent the plot from succeeding. The specifics of that operation have not been disclosed. The episode exposes a fundamental disagreement between Washington and Jerusalem over the direction of the war. President Trump has sought an exit from the conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Times, has pushed to continue military operations not only in Iran but also in Lebanon. The report notes that a permanent end to the war could be politically devastating for Netanyahu at home, particularly given that he has failed to achieve any of the objectives for which he or Trump launched the war, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to the Times.
Historical Roots and Geopolitical Implications
Israel, a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia, is bordered by Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt, with its western coast on the Mediterranean Sea and its southern tip reaching the Red Sea. The modern state emerged from the Zionist movement in 19th-century Europe as a response to antisemitism. Supported by Britain’s 1917 Balfour Declaration and the subsequent Mandatory Palestine, Jewish immigration in the decades before and during the Holocaust intensified Arab-Jewish tensions, which escalated into civil war after the United Nations proposed a partition plan in 1947.
Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948, and was invaded by Arab states the next day. The 1949 armistice left Israel with more territory than the UN plan allocated; no Arab state was created, with Egypt controlling Gaza and Jordan ruling the West Bank.
A large number of Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled in an event Palestinians call the Nakba. Israel fought major wars in 1967 and 1973. The 1967 Six-Day War brought the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Egypt’s Sinai under Israeli occupation.
Peace treaties with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) followed, as did the Oslo Accords (1993) introducing limited Palestinian self-rule. The Abraham Accords in 2020 normalized ties with several Arab states, but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists.
Israel has faced broad international criticism for its occupation of Palestinian territories, with many experts describing its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank as apartheid. After the Hamas-led attack on October 7, Israel began a military campaign in Gaza that has drawn accusations of genocide from human-rights groups and several nations. Israel and its allies, including the United States, deny those charges.
The current tension over targeting Iranian negotiators reflects the deeper rift: Netanyahu seeks continued military operations, while Trump has sought a way to end the conflict. The question now is whether the ceasefire can hold.
The administration faces the challenge of managing an ally that appears willing to act against American diplomatic efforts. Iran, for its part, has been warned through multiple channels about the threat to its negotiators. Whether the divisions between Washington and Jerusalem can be resolved before the talks collapse entirely remains an open question.
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