The New York Times reports that during April's nuclear talks, US intelligence suspected Israel was preparing to assassinate Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. According to the report, Ghalibaf was scheduled to fly to Islamabad for a meeting with US Vice President JD Vance, but Iranian security officials feared Israel would exploit the opportunity to assassinate him or Araghchi and derail the negotiations. Washington subsequently asked multiple countries to warn Tehran of the threat.
The New York Times reported Thursday evening that US intelligence suspected during April's nuclear talks that Israel was preparing to assassinate Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The initial report, published at 22:09 Jerusalem, named the two targets and noted that Washington asked several countries to warn Tehran. A second dispatch at 22:09 added that the US enlisted multiple countries. The current update, at 22:53 Jerusalem, provides new detail: Ghalibaf was scheduled to fly to Islamabad for a meeting with US Vice President JD Vance, and Iranian security officials feared Israel would exploit the opportunity to assassinate him or Araghchi and derail the negotiations.
The thread's antecedents show a story that emerged in rapid succession. At 22:09, four versions were published nearly simultaneously: the first cited US and Iranian officials saying Pakistani fighter jets escorted the Iranian delegation's plane, which later made an emergency landing due to an alleged Israeli threat; a second version specified the targets as Ghalibaf and Araghchi; a third confirmed the US enlisted multiple countries to warn Iran; and a fourth identified the targets fully. By 22:35, The Zioneer's own bulletin had aggregated the report. The corroboration across the thread remains limited to unnamed US and Iranian sources cited by the NYT, with no on-record confirmation from Israeli or Pakistani officials.
As The Zioneer previously reported, Ghalibaf is a central figure in Iran's negotiating team. On June 24, during talks in Switzerland, he reportedly rebuked Vice President Vance, saying Iran would 'never negotiate under threats or pressure.' The broader context includes a June 28 phone call between Ghalibaf and Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri, where Ghalibaf sought to keep Lebanon under the 'Islamabad Agreement' umbrella, amid fears of a separate US-mediated deal.
What remains open: whether the alleged Israeli plan was ever operational or only a US intelligence assessment; the exact role of Washington's warnings; and the status of the Islamabad meeting, which appears to have been scuttled or postponed.
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Source and signal
- Internal intake