Israel has shared intelligence with the Trump administration regarding Iranian threats to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to an Israeli source and a US official. The intelligence suggests that elements of Tehran’s hardline leadership, including the new commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ahmad Vahidi, have expressed a desire to target the American leader.
Iranian Threats
The US has considered directly targeting leaders on the list if full-scale war resumes, the source said. Recent US intelligence assessments show no indication of a new, specific Iranian plot to kill Trump, but rather a steady drumbeat of chatter about various Iranian actors wanting to do so.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been skeptical of Iran’s intentions in ongoing talks and has never believed Tehran was negotiating in good faith. Instead, Netanyahu has favored a return to war in an effort to weaken the regime.
US Response
US intelligence officials are broadly aware that Israel feels cut out of the decision-making process and is ramping up efforts to influence the Trump administration’s thinking on Iran in multiple ways with the goal of steering them away from accepting what it considers a bad deal.
Original reporting: KTVZ (Central Oregon) — read the source article.
