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US warned Iran of Israeli plot against negotiators, officials confirm

From Al Jazeera · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • US officials warned Iran of a potential Israeli plot to assassinate its lead negotiators, confirming a New York Times report.
  • Israel dismissed the report, but Washington's actions suggest it deemed the danger credible, highlighting a difficult dynamic in managing its ally.
  • The alleged plot and prior Israeli strikes, which killed pragmatic Iranian figures, aim to disrupt nuclear talks and Iran's engagement, a tactic known as

Washington feared Israel was plotting to kill Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the men leading Iran’s side of the talks. Unable to order its ally to stand down, Washington warned its adversary about its friend. Whether or not a plot existed, the decisive fact is the conduct: Washington judged the danger real enough to act on, and acted.

Unable to order its ally to stand down, Washington warned its adversary about its friend.

— US OfficialsDescribing the US actions regarding a potential Israeli plot against Iranian negotiators.

In this phase, Washington’s most difficult task is not simply keeping Iran at the table; it is preventing its closest ally from removing the table altogether. The hardest party to manage is not the one Washington spent two decades treating as an implacable enemy. It is the one it arms.

Whether or not a plot existed, the decisive fact is the conduct: Washington judged the danger real enough to act on, and acted.

— US OfficialsHighlighting the significance of Washington's decision to warn Iran.

According to the Times, Israeli strikes earlier in the war killed Ali Larijani and Kamal Kharazi, both pragmatic figures involved in the talks and people Washington had hoped to negotiate with. The channel today runs through Araghchi and Ghalibaf partly because the men who might otherwise have led it are dead. Ghalibaf himself has reportedly survived two Israeli assassination attempts.

The hardest party to manage is not the one Washington spent two decades treating as an implacable enemy. It is the one it arms.

— US OfficialsCharacterizing the complex relationship between the US and Israel in the context of Iran negotiations.

Conflict-resolution scholarship calls actors who see a peace process as a threat and act to destroy it “spoilers.” By that standard, the funeral period created almost textbook conditions for spoiling. The US-Iran track had just produced an interim agreement to halt the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. At the same time, Iran was holding days of public mourning for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed on the war’s first day, with the processions overlapping with US Independence Day. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had declared Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, marked for death, while Araghchi had promised a forceful response and demanded that Washin

spoilers

— Stephen StedmanDefining actors who seek to disrupt peace processes.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Al Jazeera in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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