Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The US asked countries in the Middle East to alert Iran about possible Israeli assassination attempts targeting senior Tehran officials that could derail the ceasefire talks which began in early April. At the centre of the alleged plot were Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, The New York Times reported, citing current and former US officials.
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US concerns over Israel’s targeting of senior Iranian leaders sharpened during fragile ceasefire talks that began in April, particularly over Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Parliament. Killing top Iranian figures had formed part of Israel’s approach from the outset of the war, but Washington feared that any move against the two officials would wreck the negotiations.
According to some officials, the United States was so worried that it asked other countries in the region to alert Iran to the possibility that Israel could try to kill Araghchi and Ghalibaf.
US officials accepted that, during the most intense stage of the conflict, both men could have been seen by Israel as valid targets as it sought to bring down Iran’s hardline government. But once talks began in earnest in April, American officials believed that any such strike would collapse the process and trigger fresh fighting.
The war started on February 28 with an Israeli strike that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials, drawing in part on US intelligence. While American strikes were directed at Iran’s navy and missile forces, Israel in the early phase concentrated on the leadership, aiming to kill as many senior figures as possible.
Among those killed were Ali Larijani, Iran’s top national security official, and Kamal Kharazi, a former foreign minister, both of whom were viewed as potentially more pragmatic leaders with whom the Trump administration had hoped to negotiate. The two men were taking part in talks with the United States when they were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
US suspicions that Israel could also try to kill Araghchi and Ghalibaf underscored how quickly American and Israeli objectives had split after appearing closely aligned at the start of the war.
While Washington pushed for a peace deal, Israel remained doubtful from the first halt in hostilities in April. That initial two-week ceasefire received only grudging backing from Israeli officials and was met with broad concern in Israel that the United States was moving too soon to stop the war. Rather than being forced from power, Iran’s theocratic leadership had grown more hardline, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had further tightened its grip on the country.
Araghchi and Ghalibaf have been central to talks with countries in the region aimed first at securing a ceasefire and then a more durable peace with the United States. In June, Washington and Tehran reached a framework agreement meant to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and set out the basis for later discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Israeli officials and commentators saw that preliminary deal as a disaster because it fell short of their war aims of bringing about regime change, dismantling Iran’s proxy forces and severely damaging its missile programme. Israeli officials also feared the agreement would channel billions of dollars into Iran, allowing it to rebuild quickly after the war without placing meaningful limits on its nuclear ambitions.
Another US official told The New York Times that talks between the American delegation, led by Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, were continuing and that the US president wanted the peace talks “to play out.”
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
