Report cites current and former US, Middle East officials

Ghalibaf, Araghchi named as targets

Washington feared talks would collapse

Iran demanded security guarantees through mediators

Plane made emergency landing amid attack intelligence

Follow-up talks later held in Switzerland

US President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 29, 2025, followed by a joint press conference. The two leaders cited halting Iran's nuclear development as the justification for the airstrikes on Iran. [AP]
US President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 29, 2025, followed by a joint press conference. The two leaders cited halting Iran's nuclear development as the justification for the airstrikes on Iran. [AP]

By Seo Ji-yeon, The Herald Business

Israel pursued plans to assassinate Iran's lead negotiators even as peace talks between Washington and Tehran were underway, according to a new report. The United States, fearing the negotiations would collapse and military conflict would escalate, urged Israel to stand down and warned Iran through intermediary countries.

The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing current and former US and Middle Eastern officials, that Israel considered assassinating Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, and Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister — both central figures in the Iranian negotiating team — in April.

Ghalibaf and Araghchi have led Iran's negotiations with the United States and are among the most senior Iranian officials to have survived a series of Israeli assassination operations.

Washington concluded that if the negotiators were targeted at a moment when talks had entered a critical phase, the negotiations would immediately break down and military hostilities could flare up again.

In response, the US asked friendly nations in the Middle East to relay to Iran the possibility that Israel might attempt to assassinate members of the delegation, the Times reported.

The US had been aware since the height of the conflict that both men were on Israel's target list, but once negotiations began, preventing any attack on them became Washington's top priority, according to the report.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington declined to comment when contacted by the Times.

A US government official told the Times that "both delegations remain in contact and President Donald Trump wants the peace process to continue."

The Wall Street Journal had reported in March that Israel placed Ghalibaf and Araghchi on an assassination list but provisionally removed them after US-Iran negotiations began.

The Times, citing US and Middle Eastern officials, said the Trump administration was aware at minimum that Ghalibaf was an Israeli target and had asked Israel to exercise restraint.

Iran also took extensive measures to protect its negotiating team.

Before Ghalibaf traveled to Islamabad, the capital of mediator country Pakistan, in April, Iran demanded that the US guarantee through Pakistan and Qatar that Israel would not carry out a covert operation targeting the delegation, according to the report.

Pakistan's air force provided a fighter jet escort for the Iranian delegation's aircraft — carrying Ghalibaf and roughly 70 others — from the border to Islamabad, and repeated the same escort on the return journey.

The return trip, however, took a dangerous turn.

Iranian military intelligence informed the delegation that Israel was planning an attack on the aircraft carrying Ghalibaf. Two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iraqi airspace and were heading toward Iran, according to the information relayed to the delegation.

The plane carrying the Iranian delegation was forced to make an emergency landing at Mashhad airport in northeastern Iran, short of the capital Tehran. The delegation then traveled overland to Tehran over roughly eight hours, the Times reported.

Ghalibaf and Araghchi continued negotiations with the United States after the incident. In June, they held a second in-person meeting in Switzerland with a US delegation that included Vice President JD Vance, conducting follow-up talks on a memorandum of understanding to end the war.


sjy@heraldcorp.com