‘Have Iranians killed an American yet?’: Trump ‘blocked’ Israeli plan to kill Iran's Khamenei

U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly shut down an Israeli proposal to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — declaring, “Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No,” according to senior U.S. officials.

The veto came as Israel launched its most aggressive strike yet on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure under Operation Rising Lion. According to two U.S. officials quoted in a Reuters report, Israel alerted Washington it had a real-time opportunity to eliminate Khamenei. 

Trump, they said, waved it off.

“Until they do [kill an American], we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” one official quoted Trump as saying.

It’s unclear whether Trump directly delivered the message to Israeli leadership, but officials confirmed he was in regular contact with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the days following the strikes.

Netanyahu, pressed on the report during an appearance on Fox News, neither confirmed nor denied the conversation. “There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that,” he said, while adding, “We’ll do what we need to do.”

Trump, who had been eyeing renewed nuclear negotiations with Tehran, may have seen the assassination as a red line. Scheduled U.S.-Iran talks in Oman were abruptly canceled following Israel’s offensive.

The Israeli operation, while successful in hitting key Iranian facilities, has sharply escalated tensions. Hundreds of Iranians and dozens of Israelis have died in the crossfire of airstrikes and retaliatory barrages. With the G7 summit underway in Canada, global leaders are now scrambling to contain further fallout.