It has been revealed that U.S. President Donald Trump stopped Israel’s plan to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to various international media outlets, Israel had consulted with Trump about a possible opportunity to assassinate Supreme Leader Khamenei.
However, U.S. media outlet CNN reported that Trump outright rejected the proposal.
Because the United States wants to stay away from the conflict between Israel and Iran and to prevent the regional war from escalating, Trump instructed Israel to withdraw from the plan to assassinate Khamenei.
After Israel attacked Iran on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been in continuous contact and communication with Trump.
During this period, when Netanyahu informed Trump about the plan to assassinate Khamenei, various international media reported that Trump rejected the proposal.
Trump had directed that Khamenei should not be killed immediately. He also expressed that the U.S. does not want to be directly involved in the conflict between the two countries.
Trump still believes that there can be negotiations to stop Iran’s nuclear program and has repeatedly urged to halt attacks and come to the negotiation table. However, the talks that were supposed to take place on Sunday in Muscat, Oman, were canceled.
About two months ago, Trump stopped Israel and began direct talks with Iran himself. At that time, Israel was preparing to launch an attack targeting Iran’s nuclear program. Trump told Israel to give him two months to reach an agreement, and Israel paused its attacks. Trump warned that if no deal was reached within two months, Israel could attack Iran. After five rounds of talks failed to produce an agreement, Israel suddenly launched an attack on Iran last Friday.
On Friday, Israel attacked Iran using around 200 fighter jets and nearly 300 weapons, killing senior military officers and nuclear scientists.
International media reported that among those killed in Israel’s attack were senior officials including the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami, Army Chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, IRGC Air Force Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, and Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters chief Gholam Ali Rashid, along with at least 20 other military officers.
With these top military officers killed, Iran’s military chain of command has been disrupted. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour as the new IRGC commander.
Major General Seyyed Abdolrahim Mousavi was appointed as the new army chief replacing Bagheri, and Ali Shadmani was appointed head of Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters replacing Rashid.
Nuclear scientists Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, Fardoun Abbasi, and Mohammad Eslami were also killed in the Israeli attack. Israel named this operation “Operation Lion.”
The Israel-Iran conflict has now entered its fourth day.
Both countries continue to strike each other, causing significant material and human losses. After appearing weak on Friday, Iran has launched strong attacks against Israel since Saturday. Iran claims to have used new technology missiles since Saturday.
Israel is targeting Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities and oil storage sites, while Iran is attacking military bases and airfields.
