US officials claim that President Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader as part of Operation Rising Lion.
By World Israel News Staff
President Donald Trump vetoed plans by Israel to assassinate the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, multiple American officials have claimed.
According to a report published by Reuters on Sunday, two U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that Israeli officials had approached the U.S. with a plan to kill Khamenei, saying there was a unique opportunity to target the ayatollah.
However, the sources claim, the president shot down the proposal, stating that unless Iran attacks Americans, the U.S. will not consider backing targeting killings of Tehran’s leaders.
“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” a senior Trump administration official told Reuters.
In a separate report by the BBC, three U.S. officials were quoted as making similar claims.
The officials told the British broadcaster that Trump had personally told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he did not approve of the plan, saying it was “not a good idea.”
According to the BBC report, the conversation took place sometime after the launch of Israel’s air campaign against Iran last Friday, dubbed Operation Rising Lion.
Prime Minister Netanyahu declined to either confirm or deny the report while speaking with Fox News over the weekend.
Netanyahu did say, though, that many reports circulating in the media regarding alleged conversations between the two leaders were false.
“There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened and I’m not going to get into that,” Netanyahu said.
“But I can tell you I think we do what we need to do. We will do what we need to do and I think the United States knows what is good for the United States and I’m just not going to get into it.”
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