


Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed during an interview with Tucker Carlson that Israel attempted to assassinate him.
“They did try, yes, and they acted accordingly, but they failed,” Pezeshkian said through a translator after Carlson asked if he believed Israel has attempted to kill him.
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He alleged that the Israeli military attempted to bombard the location where he had a meeting with advisers, but they were unsuccessful. He did not specify when this allegedly took place and whether it occurred during the 12-Day War between Israel and Iran.
“As a true believer, I believe it’s in the hands of the God almighty to determine when a person will die or will not die,” Pezeshkian said, adding that he and other Iranian leaders are not afraid of “sacrificing our lives for our people, for our independence.”
There had been no prior reporting of an Israeli attempt on Pezeshkian’s life.
The U.S. and Israel had discussions over possibly carrying out an assassination attempt on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. President Donald Trump warned last month that the U.S. knew of his location and was choosing not to target him.
Israel carried out the first strike against Iran one day after Trump’s 60-day deadline for a nuclear agreement. The Israeli military targeted Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, enrichment sites, and ballistic missile arsenal, saying that they had to launch the attack to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Pezeshkian denied Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon, though the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog had reported that they were enriching uranium to levels far beyond what’s needed for peaceful usage.
Throughout the interview, Pezeshkian repeatedly laid the blame for the conflict on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, going as far as saying he’s “created this false mentality that Iran seeks a nuclear bomb.”
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Gen. Hossein Salami; the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh; and Mohammad Bagheri, a major general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the second-in-command of the armed forces after the Iranian leader, were among the military leaders who were killed.
The U.S. got militarily involved in the conflict when B-2 bombers targeted three of Iran’s nuclear facilities, two of which had underground components.
The Trump administration has maintained that the U.S. strikes “obliterated” the facilities, though the level of damage remains somewhat unclear. Top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters last Wednesday that the U.S. strikes likely set back the Iranian nuclear program one to two years.
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“Israel does not want to see peace and tranquility in the region, but I would like to once again repeat that the United States president, Mr. Trump, he is capable enough to guide the region toward peace and a brighter future and put Israel in its place or get into an endless pit or swamp, and that is a war that Netanyahu wants the United States or U.S. president to be dragged into,” he said.
In an attempt to show Iran isn’t an enemy of the United States, Pezeshkian claimed chants of “Death to America” that take place during anti-West protests in Iran “don’t mean death to the people of the United States, or even to the officials of the United States.” He added, “They mean death to crimes, death to killing and carnage, death to supporting killing others, death to insecurity and instability.”