*Warns Tehran Against Attack On US Facilities, As Aircraft Carrier Heads West
*Iran Reiterates Does Not Seek Nuclear Weapons
UNITED States (US) President, Donald Trump, vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two officials told Reuters on Sunday, June 16.
“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do, we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said one of the sources, a senior US administration official.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said top US officials have been in constant communications with Israeli officials in the days since Israel launched a massive attack on Iran in a bid to halt its nuclear programme, adding that the Israelis reported they had an opportunity to kill the top Iranian leader, but Trump talked them off of the plan.
The officials would not say whether Trump himself delivered the message, but the US leader has been in frequent communications with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
When asked about report, Netanyahu, in an interview on Sunday, with Fox News Channel’s ‘Special Report With Bret Baier,’ said: “There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that.”
He added: “But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we’ll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States.”
Trump has been holding out hope for a resumption of US-Iranian negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Another round of talks scheduled for Sunday, June 15, in Oman were canceled as a result of the strikes.
The Israeli plan was confirmed by three US officials, who told BBC’s US partner CBS News that Trump rejected such move, telling Netanyahu that assassinating Khamenei was “not a good idea.”
The US President has not commented publicly on the report.
The conversation was said to have happened since Israel launched its attack on Iran on Friday, June 13.
An Israeli official told CBS News that “in principle,” Israel does not “kill political leaders, we are focused on nuclear and military. I don’t think anyone making decisions about those programmes should be living free and easy.”
Israel and Iran have continued to launch massive strikes at each other since the latter attacked the former’s nuclear programme sites on Friday night, June 13, with the exchange entering a fourth day on Monday, June 16.
In his latest post on his ‘Truth Social’ about the escalating situation in the Middle East, Trump said “Iran and Israel should make a deal,” adding that he would get the two to cease hostilities, “just like I got India and Pakistan,” referring to the recent confrontation between the countries.
Speaking to reporters before leaving for the G7 summit in Canada, Trump said the US would continue to support Israel and declined to say if he had asked the country to stop its strikes on Iran.
The next round of US-Iran nuclear talks were initially scheduled to take place on Sunday, but mediator, Oman’s Foreign Minister, Badr Albusaidi, announced a day earlier that they had been cancelled.
Iran told Qatar and Oman that it was not open to negotiating a ceasefire while it was still under Israeli attack, an official briefed on the communications told Reuters on Sunday.
Trump restated on Saturday that the US “had nothing to do with the attack on Iran,” warning: “If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before.”
This came as the US aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz, left the South China Sea on Monday morning, June 16, heading west, according to data from ship tracking website, Marine Traffic, after a reception for its planned port call in central Vietnam was cancelled.
The carrier had planned to visit Danang City later this week, but two sources, including one diplomat, said a formal reception slated for June 20 had been called off.
One of the sources said the US Embassy in Hanoi had informed him about the cancellation, due to “an emergent operational requirement.”
The embassy didn’t immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group conducted maritime security operations in the South China Sea last week, as “part of the U.S. Navy’s routine presence in the Indo-Pacific,” according to the website of the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet.
Data from Marine Traffic showed the carrier on Monday morning was moving west in the direction of the Middle East, where the battle between Israel and Iran is escalating.
Meanwhile, Iran has reiterated that it does not intend to develop nuclear weapons, but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday.
He restated Khamenei’s religious edict against weapons of mass destruction.
