Iranian President Says Israel Tried To Assassinate Him, Hints At Restarting Nuke Talks With US

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Masoud Pezeshkian claimed Israel attempted to assassinate him during a 12-day conflict. He expressed willingness to restart nuclear talks if trust with the US is reestablished.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has revealed that Israel had attempted to assassinate him by bombarding an area where he was holding a meeting during the 12-day conflict last month.
In an interview with US media figure Tucker Carlson which was released on Monday, the Iranian President claimed that Tel Aviv did attempt to kill him but failed.
'They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed. It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting… they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting," he said according to a translation of his remarks from Persian, in apparent reference to assassination bid as reported by news agency AFP.
During the last month's conflict, an Israeli official had also hinted at assassination of country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the top Israeli official had said the assassination of Iran's top leader is 'not off limits." The official had said that the conflict 'would only end either with Iran voluntarily dismantling its nuclear program or Israel making it impossible for Tehran to reconstitute it."
No Issues In Restarting Nuke Talks
During the interview, Pezeshkian said that Tehran has 'no problem" restarting nuclear talks, provided that trust can be reestablished between the two countries.
'We see no problem in re-entering the negotiations," the Iranian President said as quoted by the news agency.
'There is a condition … for restarting the talks. How are we going to trust the United States again? We re-entered the negotiations, then how can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks the Israeli regime will not be given the permission again to attack us," he added.
Iran-Israel Tensions
His statement came days after a truce between Iran and Israel after engaging in a 12-day war.
In a major escalation in the Middle East region, Israel launched 'Operation Rising Lion,' striking at the heart of Iran's nuclear program on June 13, killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists.
The Israeli attacks took place days before Tehran and Washington were set to meet for a new round of nuclear talks which began on April 12.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the operation was a 'targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival."
More than 900 people were killed in Iran during the conflict. Iran launched missiles at targets across Israel, including the port city of Haifa, after Israeli forces bombed civilian and energy infrastructure across Iran. The retaliatory strikes killed 28 people in Israel, according to authorities.
The 12-day war also saw United States launching strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.
(With inputs from AFP)
First Published:
July 07, 2025, 19:46 IST