Trump Rejected Plan for Khamenei Assassination

Israel had a window of opportunity on Friday to assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, but U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed the move, several major news outlets reported Sunday, while Israeli officials cast the series of reports as “fake news.”

At the same time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who himself refused to comment one way or another about the vetoed assassination reports — told Fox News on Sunday that regime change in Iran “could certainly be the result” of Israel’s ongoing military campaign, though he did not say it was the goal and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar denied outright on Sunday that this was the goal.

Israeli officials have said repeatedly since launching its intensive waves of airstrikes on Iran early Friday that the campaign is preemptive and was initiated to stave off the imminent, existential threat of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon and growing its ballistic missile arsenal.

Officials have also said, however, that if Iran crosses enough red lines — specifically through attacking civilian population centers, as it has in several missile attacks since Friday — anything could be on the table.

Reuters reported Sunday, citing two U.S. officials, that Israel had an opportunity to kill Khamenei, but Trump “waved off the plan.” Shortly thereafter, the Associated Press (AP), Axios, and Israel’s Channel 13 said they’d received confirmation of similar details from American officials.

After being briefed on the plan, the White House made clear to Israeli officials that Trump was opposed to the Israelis making the move, according to a U.S. official, who was not authorized to comment on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

To Axios, a U.S. official said: “We communicated to the Israelis that President Trump is opposed to that. The Iranians haven’t killed an American and discussion of killing political leaders should not be on the table.”

In Israel, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi denied the Reuters report, calling it “fake news.” Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri also called it “fake.”

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Sa’ar said: “The goal [of the campaign] is not regime change. That’s for the Iranian people to decide.”

But when Netanyahu himself was asked by Fox News’s Bret Baier about the report, the premier demurred, saying: “There are a lot of false reports about conversations that didn’t take place, but I don’t want to get into that.”

“But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we’ll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States,” the premier added.

Despite the numerous reports of Trump’s veto, details about the proposed assassination itself were scarce, and the reports didn’t say whether Israel had actively sought to carry out the plan.

Iran International, a U.K.-based outlet critical of the Islamic Republic, cited a diplomatic source in the Middle East who said Israel could have assassinated Khamenei on the first night of the operation Thursday-Friday, but chose not to, in order to give the 86-year-old cleric one last chance to commit to completely dismantle his country’s uranium enrichment program.

The outlet also reported, citing two informed sources inside Iran, that Khamenei was whisked away that night to an underground bunker in northeastern Tehran’s Lavizan, where he is now holed up alongside his family.

The diplomatic source added that Israel’s strike Sunday on an Iranian refueling plane in the city of Mashhad — some 2,300 kilometers (1,430 miles) from Israel — was a warning to Khamenei that there is no part of the country in which he is safe.