Report: Washington Monitors Israeli Espionage on American and Iranian Officials

SadaNews reported that CNN has cited American officials stating that the U.S. administration is closely monitoring the intensification of Israeli espionage network's intelligence operations on Iranian and American officials in recent months.

CNN mentioned that the disagreements between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escalated during American negotiations with Iran, pointing out that Trump believed Netanyahu was overly eager to undermine the peace process.

The American network revealed a heated argument that took place last June, where Trump used profanity to express his rejection of a military operation planned by Israel in Lebanon, according to two informed individuals who spoke to CNN.

America Warns Iran

Two American officials told the network that members of the Trump administration tried to warn Iran of concerns they had that Israel might assassinate negotiators during discussions that took place in recent months.

It clarified that the United States was worried about the possibility of Israel assassinating Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Iranian parliament speaker leading negotiations with the U.S., or Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who was also a prominent figure in these talks, adding that the warnings were conveyed through intermediaries.

It referred to statements from senior Israeli officials expressing Israel's desire to eliminate top Iranian leaders, as well as Trump's viewpoint that such an operation would complicate negotiations.

In March, Trump refused to inform reporters of the identities of the Iranian figures that the United States was negotiating with, saying "I don’t want them to be killed." He added, "You know, it’s a bit tough.. they’ve eliminated everyone."

CNN stated that a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington declined to comment.

Repeated Attempts to Assassinate Qalibaf

The New York Times previously revealed that Washington went as far as asking other countries in the region to warn Iran of the possibility of Israel targeting Qalibaf and Araqchi.

It also quoted Iranian officials stating that Qalibaf narrowly escaped death twice; once during the twelve-day war in June 2025, and again this year, when Israel targeted a secret meeting of senior government officials in a shelter under a mountain, explaining that Qalibaf was rescued from the rubble in both incidents.

The newspaper added that Pakistani fighter jets escorted the Iranian negotiating delegation's plane back and forth, noting that a threat from Israeli fighters on the return journey to Tehran required landing in Mashhad and completing the journey to Tehran by land for 8 hours.

Israel Assassinating Iranian Leaders

In the early days and weeks of the war, Israel assassinated dozens of senior political and religious leaders in Iran, including the then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Ali Larijani.

CNN explained that with the failure of the assassination campaign to change the regime in Tehran, the Trump administration changed its strategy and backed away from supporting these assassinations in favor of a negotiation option with Iran, indicating that targeting Qalibaf or Araqchi would have reversed the course of negotiations, especially since the talks were extremely fragile and their future remained uncertain up to now.