The Israeli intelligence shared with the Trump administration of Iranian threats to assassinate President Donald Trump reflected a desire among elements of Tehran’s hardline leadership to target the American leader, according to an Israeli source and a US official, rather than a specific, detailed plan to carry out such an operation.
The new commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ahmad Vahidi, was part of the group advocating for such a plan, the Israeli source told CNN. Vahidi has been included in lists of “obstructionists” within the regime who are viewed by the Trump administration as actively undermining negotiations, according to a source familiar with US planning. The US has considered directly targeting leaders on the list if full-scale war resumes, the source said.
Two US sources familiar with the matter said recent US intelligence assessments show no indication of a new, specific Iranian plot to kill Trump, but rather a steady drumbeat of chatter about various Iranian actors wanting to do so. The desire to target Trump is not unique to Iran’s leadership. Mourners at the days-long funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by Israel in the opening strikes of the war in late-February, held signs calling on Iran to kill Trump.
