Azernews.Az

Akbar Novruz

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US officials believed that Israel may have been considering strikes against senior Iranian negotiators during sensitive diplomatic talks with Tehran this spring, according to current and former American officials cited, AzerNEWS reports citing NY Times.

The concerns reportedly centered on two high-ranking Iranian officials involved in governance and negotiations, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as Washington worked to advance an interim de-escalation framework with Tehran beginning in April.

According to the officials, Israel had considered targeting senior Iranian figures as part of its broader wartime strategy aimed at weakening Iran’s leadership structure. However, US officials became increasingly concerned that any assassination attempt during ongoing negotiations could collapse diplomatic efforts and reignite full-scale escalation.

In response to these fears, US officials reportedly engaged regional partners to convey warnings to Iran about potential risks to its senior leadership during the negotiations, in an effort to prevent further escalation and preserve the talks.

American officials acknowledged that senior Iranian political figures could be viewed as legitimate targets in a wartime context, but stressed that the timing of the talks made any such action highly destabilizing for diplomatic efforts.

The report underscores the fragility of backchannel diplomacy during periods of heightened regional conflict and the competing pressures between military strategy and negotiated de-escalation efforts.