IC Operations & Tradecraft — 2026-07-05

US Intelligence Agencies Warned Iran Through Intermediaries of Israeli Plot to Assassinate Araghchi and Ghalibaf During Negotiations

BLUFWashington's decision to shield Iranian negotiators from an allied state's suspected targeting marks a functional break in US-Israeli operational alignment on Iran policy.

US officials warned Iran, through regional intermediaries, that Israel might try to assassinate its lead negotiators, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, two US officials told CNN in a warning the New York Times first reported 12. CNN reported no immediate indication that US intelligence had knowledge of a specific plot behind the warning 1. JFeed, citing the Times reporting, said the clearest threat emerged on April 12 as Ghalibaf's aircraft returned to Tehran from Islamabad following his meeting with Vice President JD Vance, when Iranian security forces detected two Israeli fighter jets crossing into Iranian airspace near the Iraqi border and diverted the plane to an emergency landing in Mashhad, after which the delegation completed the roughly eight-hour trip to Tehran by land 23. The Times separately reported the Trump administration, on learning Ghalibaf was on an Israeli targeting list, asked Israel directly to refrain from acting against him 2. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office called the Times story "a complete fabrication of reality," and an Israeli embassy spokeswoman in Washington declined to comment 1.

Analysis
US warnings to Tehran through intermediaries, single-source to the Times with CNN, RT, and JFeed amplifying rather than confirming, show Washington now ranks the negotiating channel above solidarity with Israel's campaign against Iran's leadership, widening the gap between the diplomatic track and Jerusalem's stated appetite for further strikes. Tehran's rerouting of Ghalibaf's delegation and tightened security indicate it now treats unilateral Israeli action as a standing threat to the talks regardless of coordination with Washington. Israel's denial forecloses near-term US-Israeli reconciliation on targeting policy toward Iran's negotiators. The dramatized emergency-landing detail, resting solely on JFeed's gloss of the Times account, may instead reflect Iranian messaging inflating an unconfirmed warning into a near-miss rather than a documented Israeli operation.

4 sources