Israel shared intelligence with the United States that Iran had recently devised a new plan to assassinate President Donald Trump, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN, adding another layer of tension as a ceasefire deal between the countries comes under strain.
One of the sources said the warning came this week. Another source said the US had picked up a steady drumbeat of intelligence in recent weeks about possible plans to assassinate Trump, but the warning from Israel was new and concerned a specific plot.
Other American officials suggested the Israeli report could be an effort to sway Trump’s decision-making as he weighs whether to intensify American military action against Iran. The details of the plot that Israel warned about were not immediately clear, and two sources familiar with the matter said the US had not vetted it themselves nor were they tracking it before the Israeli warning. The US government has long warned that Iran may try to kill Trump in retaliation for the 2020 drone strike he ordered which killed a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani.
Asked for comment on the Israeli warning, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the White House pointed to Trump’s recent comments on Iran’s desire to kill him.
“They want to take out the US leader — me,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “I’m on whatever list. I saw this morning I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a bit lucky, but maybe that doesn’t last very long. These are evil, sick people. And we have to root out that cancer. That cancer. You know what you do? You’ve got to cut out cancer early. And that’s the way I feel.”
Later, Trump said he’d recently learned of a new list that ranked him as Iran’s top assassination target. It’s not clear if he was referring to the new Israeli intelligence information.
Over the weekend, crowds of Iranians called for Trump’s death during funeral proceedings for the slain Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the war.
Tensions have ramped up between the US and Iran in recent days, with the two sides trading threats and strikes as a 60-day ceasefire ending hostilities is in tatters.
Two sources familiar with recent US intelligence said that the intelligence community is tracking several actors who have discussed attacks but haven’t taken action, and one said that US intelligence agencies have been concerned that Iran would target a number of current and former senior officials. But that source said that the Israeli report is viewed — in part — as piece of a broader Israeli effort to influence Trump’s decision making on Iran. Some in the intelligence community are always skeptical of Israeli reporting, the source said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced deep doubts toward Trump’s efforts at diplomacy with Iran, and he has clashed with Trump over Israeli military action in Lebanon, which had complicated the talks. The two men spoke by phone Thursday, and Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington soon for talks with the president.
On Thursday, another US official said diplomatic efforts with Iran are still underway behind the scenes, despite a resumption of strikes between the two sides and Trump’s declaration a day earlier that the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran was “over.” Washington and Tehran are working toward reaching a nuclear deal by mid-August.
Multiple officials said there had been preparations for potential strikes if needed Thursday night, but they were foregoing them in favor of diplomacy. Earlier Thursday on the USS Abraham Lincoln, crews loaded up fighter jets with armaments and pilots did drills in the event they were called on to conduct strikes. The aircraft carrier’s commanding officer, Dan Keeler, told the thousands of crew members on board things were heating up.
As preparations were underway, fighter pilots continued to operate routine defensive operations with flights taking off throughout the day and night.
Source: CNN
--Agencies
