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Israel has dismissed a report by The New York Times wherein it was claimed that US officials were fearful of an Israeli attempt to assassinate Iran's two top negotiators involved in the indirect peace talks with Washington.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dubbed the news report a "complete fabrication of reality."
The NYT had reported that the United States had reached out to countries in the Middle East in an effort to convey to Iran about possible Israeli assassination attempts targeting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
"As usual, The New York Times' latest story about Israel and the Iranian negotiators is fake news," Netanyahu's office said in a statement cited by The Times of Israel.
The NYT had cited unnamed serving and former US officials in its report.
The US news outlet had noted that while the killing of senior Iranian figures had been part of Israel's war strategy from the very beginning, American concerns about possible attempts on Araghchi and Ghalibaf's lives spiked during delicate ceasefire negotiations that started in earnest in April.
Concerned that such a move by Israel would completely derail the talks, the US reportedly sought to indirectly warn Iran about the possibility of the two senior Iranian officials being fatally targeted.
US officials purportedly believed that any Israeli attempt to assassinate the duo would end the negotiations and reignite fighting.
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Published On:
Jul 4, 2026 07:32 IST
