Iran’s president claims Israel tried to kill him, says open to new nuke talks with US

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed that Israel attempted to assassinate him, speaking in a 28-minute interview released Monday with American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson

“They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed,” Pezeshkian said in response to Carlson’s question about whether he believes Israel tried to kill him.

Asked how he was certain of such an attempt, he replied: “Of course, it was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life… It was Israel,” according to a Persian-to-English translation provided in the interview. “I was in a meeting… but thanks to the intelligence by the spies that they had, they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting.”

Pezeshkian did not specify the date of the alleged assassination attempt, nor whether it occurred during last month’s conflict.

Israel says its sweeping assault — which began 61 days after US President Donald Trump set a 60-day deadline for a nuclear deal, and targeted Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program — was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Among the top military leaders killed were Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Gen. Hossein Salami; the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh; and Mohammad Bagheri, a major general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the second-in-command of the armed forces after the Iranian leader.

Political leaders were spared from the attacks, and there were no previous reports of an attempt on Pezeshkian’s life.

In a briefing with reporters Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz asserted that “regime change was not a goal” of the war.

“We just wanted to challenge them and bring them to stop the exchange of blows,” he said.

On June 22, the US joined the assault, striking key Iranian nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordo, and Isfahan.

US President Donald Trump claimed following the war that he had prevented American and Israeli forces from killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while Katz said that Israel did not kill Khamenei because it did not know where he was hiding underground.

Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.

Iran retaliated against Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel. The attacks killed 28 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.

Pezeshkian also told Carlson that his country has “no problem” restarting nuclear talks with the US — which were suspended when the war began — provided that trust can be reestablished between the two countries.

“We see no problem in reentering the negotiations,” Pezeshkian told Carlson. “There is a condition… for restarting the talks. How are we going to trust the United States again?”

Axios reported Thursday that White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will resume nuclear talks in Oslo this week, in their first meeting since the war.

Neither Washington nor Tehran confirmed the report.

Trump said Sunday his administration was “working on a lot of things” with Israel, including “probably a permanent deal with Iran.”

The main obstacle to a deal has been Iran’s insistence on being able to enrich uranium, while Washington has demanded Tehran give up its program entirely.

Pezeshkian insisted in the interview with Carlson that Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons, claiming, “It was Netanyahu, since 1984, [that] has created this false mentality that Iran seeks a nuclear bomb,” and that Israel has “put it in the minds of every US president since then.”

In response to a question about Iranian threats to the US, Pezeshkian claimed, “I would like to remind you that Iran has never invaded another country in the last 200 years.”

After repelling Iraq’s initial invasion in 1980, Iranian forces launched their own offensives inside Iraqi territory. In addition, its proxy groups have fought in conflicts across the Middle East since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“When they say death to the United States, they don’t mean death to the people of the United States, or even to the officials of the United States. They mean death to crimes, death to killing and carnage, death to supporting killing others, death to insecurity and instability. Have you ever heard an Iranian killing an American?” Pezeshkian said.

Since 1979, the Iranian regime has conducted several attacks against US citizens through its proxies, held American diplomats hostage for 444 days during the revolution, and has been accused of trying to assassinate US officials, including Trump.

Additionally, the family of former FBI agent Robert Levinson claimed in 2020 that he died in an Iranian prison after disappearing in the country in 2007.

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