“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do, we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” one official said, describing White House deliberations that followed Israel’s large-scale strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military sites last week.
The officials, who requested anonymity, said Washington and Jerusalem have been in near-constant contact since Israel launched the offensive.
Israeli counterparts told their American interlocutors they had an opportunity to eliminate Khamenei, but Trump instructed them to stand down, the sources said.
They would not say whether the message came directly from the president, though Trump has spoken frequently with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the crisis began.
Asked about the Reuters report in an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu replied: “There are so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that […] We’ll do what we need to do, and I think the United States knows what is good for the United States.”
Trump, who hopes to revive stalled nuclear talks with Tehran, told Reuters on Friday that “we knew everything” about Israel’s strikes.
A planned U.S.–Iran meeting in Oman on Sunday was canceled after the attacks, officials said.
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Source: Reuters