U.S. officials believed Israel was plotting to kill Iranian negotiators

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/us/politics/israel-iran-negotiators-plot.html

by MilnerRoute • 20 days ago

130 45 20 days ago

ndiddy2• 20 days ago

In April, Mr. Ghalibaf was set to travel to Islamabad to meet with Vice President JD Vance. But Iranian security officials were concerned that Israel would use the opportunity to assassinate Mr. Ghalibaf or Mr. Araghchi to derail the talks, the officials said.
Iranians sought guarantees from the United States, through Pakistani and Qatari intermediaries, that Israel would not carry out any covert operations targeting the Iranian delegation, the officials said.
Pakistani fighter jets escorted the Iranian airplanes carrying a delegation of more than 70 Iranians from the border of Iran to Islamabad and back again when the session was over.
But on the way back to Tehran, an Israeli security threat emerged.
Iran’s security forces notified the plane carrying Mr. Ghalibaf back to Tehran that they had picked up intelligence that Israel planned to attack the plane and that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iran’s airspace from its western border near Iraq, the two officials said.
Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser for Mr. Ghalibaf, who accompanied him to Islamabad, confirmed this account on his social media page. The plane made an emergency landing in the city of Mashhad, Iran’s closest airport to the Pakistani border, and the Iranian delegation traveled some eight hours by land back to Tehran, Mr. Mohammadi and the two officials said.

fsckboy• 20 days ago

in what you quoted, nothing says "U.S. officials believed..." as the headline states

ndiddy2• 20 days ago

U.S. officials believed that Israel might have been plotting to kill Iran’s top negotiators while Washington was engaged with Tehran in delicate talks this spring to reach an interim peace deal, according to current and former American officials.
Killing senior Iranian leaders had been part of Israel’s strategy from the start of the war. But American concerns about the targeting of two particular Iranian officials — Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Parliament — spiked during delicate cease-fire negotiations that began in April.
Fearful that an Israeli assassination effort would doom the negotiations, the United States, according to some of the officials, went so far as to ask other countries in the region to warn Iran about the possibility Israel could target the two officials.

bruhlikereally• 20 days ago

Gotta be the most “water is wet” headline I’ve ever read. They literally did this already.

janalsncm• 20 days ago

When you say “water is wet” and someone asks for evidence, now you will have evidence.

actionfromafar2• 20 days ago

But is water still wet?

throw3108222• 20 days ago

We deny with all force this slanderous libel that evil people keep spreading because of their senseless hatred. Water is not just not wet, it's in fact the dryest imaginable substance. We have tested it thoroughly in our laboratories- which as everybody knows are the most advanced in the world- and we have found in it not the slightest amount of wetness. I have personally spoken with the US ambassador about this matter and he reaffirmed the complete trust of his country in the absolute dryness of water.

CamperBob2• 20 days ago

Launch an unprovoked attack, do it under cover of negotiation, and then attack diplomatic envoys.

Belligerence, perfidy, and I don't even know the term for that last part, it's so unheard-of. We have violated rules of warfare that were already old thousands of years ago.

At what point do we admit we're the bad guys?

sbayg• 20 days ago

When we killed Kennedy. That was the point we should have admitted being the bad gays.

cassianoleal• 20 days ago

At what point do we admit we're the bad guys?

There had already been so many chances in the last couple centuries. I'm not holding my breath.

LikelyLiar• 20 days ago

At what point do we admit we're the bad guys?

I have seen this question online numerous times, but I fail to understand why they expect shame from the shameless, and truth from liars, and respect of law from people who maximize loophole usage.

ASalazarMX• 14 days ago

I'd wonder instead if anyone still thinks of USA as the good guys of the world. In these days where information (and disinformation) happens fast, propaganda can only cover reality up to a point.

mullingitover2• 20 days ago

It's incredible how badly the US has been dog-walked by both its 'ally' as well as Iran.

"America First" brought to you by "The Peace President"[1].

[1] https://xcancel.com/WhiteHouse/status/1976081153699508480

wat10000• 20 days ago

You’d think he could have done better, what with all that foreign policy experience from his years on The Apprentice.

Cernunnos• 20 days ago

There is only so much you can do when you've been purchased by mossad.

throwaway85825• 20 days ago

Purchased, blackmailed, threatened, or all 3. There's a lot of tools in the intelligence toolbox.

red-iron-pine3• 19 days ago

Mossad does far more than just bribes.

"there is only so much you can do when being blackmailed by the Mossad"

8note• 20 days ago

im really not convinced israel is an ally, vs a nuclear threat that has had the US by the balls for decades.

who else has attacked the US navy with the US staying hush hush about it?

the_solenoid• 20 days ago

If you frame it as an entity that launders the military industrial complex's desires to test weapons, keep congress beholden, and keep conflicts going forever – then work backwards from there, the allowance of their subversion makes perfect sense, as well as the over the top allegiance of those congresscritters it buys.

Dunno if that is how it works but I have never been able to square the capitulation in our government without that tie. This is also considering the influence of christian z's.

red-iron-pine3• 19 days ago

they just hustled Congress to integrate their militaries as well, lol

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/congress-quietly-mov...

bulbar• 20 days ago

Look what Rütte did. Everybody knows how to play Trump. The whole world now plays "do whatever you want, just take care to make Trump thinking he looks good while doing it, or at least afterwards".

The US isn't an actor anymore on the global stage. It's the playball.

Hikikomori• 20 days ago

Can't believe that Israel would do something they've done several times already.

diogenescynic• 20 days ago

They killed their own citizens on October 7th just to pump up the numbers. There are recordings made public where Ben Gvir is ordering more killings. I can't stand how our mainstream media completely ignores all of Israel's crimes. Even when Israelis come here to sexual assault people in Las Vegas, or open biolabs, or steal technology... it's always swept under the rug.

IAmBroom• 16 days ago

I live near a nuclear plant, where an Israeli group was escorted in for a "tour" just before Israel magically obtained enough material for a nuclear bomb.

It's widely believed by locals that this was their shopping trip.

tanseydavid• 20 days ago

Every time I see a photo of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, I instantly think I am looking at a picture of author Nicholas Nassim Talib (Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness).

Am I the only one?

jLaForest• 20 days ago

You mean again because they already attempted to assainate peace negotiators in Doha months ago

eucryphia• 20 days ago

While the IRGC works out how to eliminate Jews from the planet.

“First they come for the Saturday people”

romanhounds• 20 days ago

lmao IRGC isn't rolling on the US, neither is islam in general if that's where you were trying point to that in the silence.

rasz• 20 days ago

remind me what is their national chant? https://www.iranintl.com/en/202511042838

grandpajoey3• 20 days ago

This is an absurd statement. Israel has been killing innocent people in the region since it was created. Iran is right to stand up to them. Bonus points that as an American they're also standing up for me against the Zionists who manipulate my government and steal my money.

cramer4next• 20 days ago

I'm an American for sure doesn't represent me or are they standing up for me. You obviously don't listen to their supreme leaders hate speeches.

actionfromafar2• 20 days ago

Iran is only standing up for their flavor of killing innocent people.

clydethefrog• 19 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Rafi%27-Nia...

za3faran• 19 days ago

You know that israel bombed jewish places of worship in Iran, right?

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/4/11/iranian-r...

helloisrael• 20 days ago

I’d like someone to steel man for me why is this an HN-compliant topic?

I’d love to harp on Israel I don’t even mind being called an anti-Semite or whatever, but give some decent justification why this keeps coming up on Hacker News of all places.

Jamesbeam• 20 days ago

What you can read between the lines is far more interesting than the headline.

I am giving the NYT the credibility that they thoroughly check their sources, so the question is why would anyone from the US Government want this to be publicly available information?

It makes all involved parties look like idiots.

This report basically says that the us administration currently has terrible intelligence relationships with Israel, if they have not been informed officially as a direct strategic partner in the Iran war over the planned operation. It’s kinda important if your ally plans to blow up the people you negotiate your own peace deal with, don’t you think?

It also means that the "we don’t spy on allies", Americans, indeed spy on allies. I’m absolutely shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

How else do you get in possession of information that your war ally didn’t seem necessary to share, if not by spying?

It also says that Mossad/IDF leaks at the highest level because the assassination of government officials who are actively brokering a peace deal is a kind of very high-level decision.

Still, if this actually happened this way, it’s not a power play to make this public, it is dumb. But dumb is the signature move of the current US administration, so it makes the report even more believable.

Will be interesting to see how this develops.

manyaoman• 20 days ago

Vicious. Adding to the mountain of evidence that Israel wants the region in flames.

Cytobit• 20 days ago

The scenario of Israel saying to the US "let's bomb the people you are negotiating with" is how the war started in the first place.

U.S. officials believed Israel was plotting to kill Iranian negotiators

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