Current and former US officials believe that Israel may have planned to assassinate Iran's top negotiators during sensitive ceasefire talks, the New York Times reported.
The newspaper, citing US officials, said Washington was concerned that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf could have been targeted when the talks intensified in April.
The Trump administration was so concerned that it asked other countries in the region to warn Tehran of the possibility of Israel attacking the two senior officials.
According to reports, US officials believed that any attempt for assassination after the talks began in April would end the talks and reignite the conflict.
Washington has learned that at least Ghalibaf was on Israel's target list and has urged Israel not to proceed.
It also quotes Iranian officials as saying that Tehran has sought assurances from the United States, through Pakistani and Qatari intermediaries, that Israel would not attack its negotiating team during diplomatic meetings.
It described an incident in April in which Ghalibaf's return flight from Islamabad was diverted to Mashhad after Iranian security forces intercepted two Israeli planes entering Iranian airspace. Israeli embassy officials in Washington declined to comment on the allegations. A US official told the newspaper that talks between the US and Iranian delegations were continuing and that President Donald Trump wanted the peace process to "develop". Meanwhile, Ali Abdollahi, head of the Khattam al-Anbiya group, warned Israel and the US not to launch any attacks on Iran as the country prepares for the funeral of its former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters reported. We warn Iran's enemies, especially the US and the Zionist regime (Israel), to avoid any miscalculations and to consider the harsh retaliation that our armed forces would inflict in response to any threat or aggression against our country, he stressed. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued a similar warning, that Tehran will give an immediate and powerful response to any threat against its people or leadership, after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Iran's current Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “marked to die”.