US officials attempted to warn Iran of fears that Israel would assassinate mediators | CNN Politics

US officials attempted to warn Iran of fears they had that Israel would assassinate meditators during talks this spring, two US officials said.

The officials said the US worried that Israel might assassinate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian parliamentary speaker who is leading negotiations with the US, or Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who has also been a public face of the talks. The warnings were communicated through intermediaries, the officials said.

The New York Times first reported on the warnings.

There were no immediate indications on Friday that US intelligence had knowledge of a specific plot that prompted the warning. The top Israeli defense official has been public about Jerusalem’s desire to kill senior Iranian leaders, and President Donald Trump has in the past made clear that those efforts were complicating negotiations.

In March, he declined to tell reporters who in Iran the US was negotiating with because “I don’t want them to be killed.”