U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly rejected an Israeli plan to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This information comes from three American officials who spoke to CBS News, a BBC partner in the United States, as reported by the BBC.
One official stated that Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that killing Khamenei “was not a good idea.” The President has not publicly commented on this report.
The alleged conversation is said to have taken place since Israel launched attacks on Iran on Friday.
During an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu neither confirmed nor directly denied a Reuters report that Trump had vetoed the plan to kill the Ayatollah. “There are so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I won’t get into that,” the Israeli Prime Minister stated. “But I can tell you that I think we do what we need to do. We will do what we need to do, and I think the United States knows what is good for the United States, and I won’t get into that,” he added.
An Israeli official told CBS News that “in principle,” Israel does not “kill political leaders; we are focused on the military and nuclear aspects. We don’t think anyone who makes decisions about these programs should live freely and take it easy.”
