The report, which cited US officials, said that the US agreed that Araghchi and Ghalibaf could have been targets for Israel during the full-scale war, as the US has strongly backed Israel’s assassinations, but that it was concerned that killing them during negotiations could have derailed the diplomatic process.

Some officials told the paper that the US went as far as telling other countries to warn Iran about the potential Israeli assassination plot.

The report said that Iran was concerned that Israel might have tried to kill Ghalibaf when he traveled to Pakistan for negotiations in April, and that on the way back, Iran’s “security forces notified the plane carrying Mr. Ghalibaf back to Tehran that they had picked up intelligence that Israel planned to attack the plane and that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iran’s airspace from its western border near Iraq.”

The report said the talks focused on whether the US should restart the full-scale war and abandon negotiations, and that while Trump hasn’t made a final decision, he told aides that he believed another round of full-scale strikes would derail negotiations and hurt the chances of dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, though Tehran has maintained it won’t give up its civilian nuclear program.

Trump also reportedly said that he was fine with going past the first 60-day deadline for talks under the MoU and that he was happy with launching limited strikes against Iran for allegedly “violating” the MoU, though attacks in themselves are a violation of the agreement, which states each party pledges “not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other.”

The president has publicly threatened to destroy Iran if the Islamic Republic doesn’t do what he wants, but he has also admitted that bombing the country isn’t a viable path to opening the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking at a memorial for Israelis killed in the 2006 Lebanon war, Katz said Israel could strike Iran again “if necessary” despite the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding. “We have attacked twice with proactive, preemptive strikes in Iran and, if necessary, we will strike a third time as well,” he said, according to Middle East Eye.

Israel launched a sneak attack on Iran in June 2025 under the cover of negotiations that were ongoing between Washington and Tehran. President Trump assisted in keeping Iran off guard, as he said in a post on Truth Social hours before the first missiles hit, that he was “committed” to diplomacy with Tehran. The current war also began as the US and Iran were engaged in negotiations and started with joint US-Israeli strikes.

Earlier this week, Katz said Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was “marked for death.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to Katz’s threat on Wednesday, saying that the US had committed to “muzzling” Israel under the MoU.

The first article of the 60-day interim agreement signed by the U.S. and Iran conditions an end to the conflict on the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon” and on “ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.” That second clause, more than any other, appears to be the one Israel is most reluctant to accept.

Despite Israeli withdrawal now required to end a war that now threatens to destabilize the entire global economy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that Israel would occupy southern Lebanon indefinitely, stating that “we dominate southern Lebanon, from the summit of the Beaufort, and we will remain as long as required,” adding that “we do not intend to withdraw from it.” Defense Minister Israel Katz meanwhile said there was “no American demand for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon,” and that Israel would not withdraw even if there were one, later telling reporters that southern Lebanon was Israel’s “playground.”

“Our insistence is that we will not leave southern Lebanon until the threat is removed,” Netanyahu told Israeli troops, according to a statement released by his office. “And as long as Hezbollah is armed and present here, posing a threat to us – we will remain here.”

The Israeli prime minister also boasted of the mass destruction of southern Lebanon villages, which he framed as necessary to create so-called “security zones” in territory near Israel’s border.

“These security zones are a paradigm shift. The meaning is that we no longer allow an army of terrorists to have a foothold on our border. We push them back – that is what you are doing. And we destroy, above ground and underground, basically anything that served them as a means of attacking us,” Netanyahu said.

“I say this because I sit in the Security Cabinet, and I understand that we cannot allow Hamas to raise its head again – not even by a millimeter. There is no such thing,” Cohen said in an interview with Galei Israel Radio, according to Israel National News.

The Israeli minister said that the IDF is steadily increasing its territorial control of Gaza, which aligns with what Palestinians are reporting on the ground. “We already see that we are progressing. I assume you will speak to me [again] in a few months – our control of the territory will only continue to expand until we reach 100%,” Cohen said.

After the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal was signed in October 2025, the IDF was left occupying about 53% of Gaza, and the agreement explicitly said Israel couldn’t take more territory if Hamas lived up to its end of the deal, which the group did by releasing the remaining Israeli hostages and finding the remains of deceased Israelis.

Dave DeCamp

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