US Believed Israel Tried To Assassinate Iran's Top Negotiators As Ghalibaf's Plane Made Emergency Landing

The New York Times has issued a new report citing unnamed US officials who believe that Israel came close to assassinating Iran's top negotiators Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

According to the report, a concrete Israeli threat against Ghalibaf and the FM emerged while they were traveling back to Iran from Islamabad following talks with US Vice President JD Vance on April 12.

Prior to that point, during active fighting, Israel had worked its way through killing much of Iran's senior leadership starting with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but questions lingered over whether the country's top negotiators - who have come to represent Tehran on the global stage - could be deemed legitimate targets.

Even as Washington and regional brokers stepped in to try and halt the prospect of runaway conflict, wherein the US would find itself in yet another 'forever war' and quagmire, Israel still floated the potential for more assassinations targeting top Islamic Republic leadership. 

The NYT, citing officials, sets up the mid-April near-miss incident as follows:

In April, Mr. Ghalibaf was set to travel to Islamabad to meet with Vice President JD Vance. But Iranian security officials were concerned that Israel would use the opportunity to assassinate Mr. Ghalibaf or Mr. Araghchi to derail the talks, the officials said.

Iranians sought guarantees from the United States, through Pakistani and Qatari intermediaries, that Israel would not carry out any covert operations targeting the Iranian delegation, the officials said.

Pakistani fighter jets escorted the Iranian airplanes carrying a delegation of more than 70 Iranians from the border of Iran to Islamabad and back again when the session was over.

But on the way back to Tehran, an Israeli security threat emerged.

From there, Iranian security forces reportedly notified Ghalibaf's plane of intelligence indicating that Israel planned to attack the aircraft - and the delegation took the warning seriously enough to divert from the original flight path and make an emergency landing in Mashhad, northeastern Iran.

Ghalibaf and his entourage then opted to return to Tehran by land, the report says. The following sounds straight out of a Hollywood script:

Iran’s security forces notified the plane carrying Mr. Ghalibaf back to Tehran that they had picked up intelligence that Israel planned to attack the plane and that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iran’s airspace from its western border near Iraq, the two officials said.

"Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser for Mr. Ghalibaf, who accompanied him to Islamabad, confirmed this account on his social media page," the NYT notes. "The plane made an emergency landing in the city of Mashhad, Iran’s closest airport to the Pakistani border, and the Iranian delegation traveled some eight hours by land back to Tehran, Mr. Mohammadi and the two officials said."

Some commenters have expressed deep skepticism at the Thursday NYT story...

Well this sounds fake AF

— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) July 2, 2026

Behind the scenes the Trump administration had reportedly been asking the Israelis to "back off" in order to allow space for negotiations. Certainly, had Ghalibaf or Araghchi been attacked and killed, the situation would have spiraled into all-out war, which still remains a prospect. 

Lately the Iranians have urged Washington to continue to 'muzzle' and restrain its more hawkish Israeli ally. FM Araghchi said Wednesday in reference to Trump that "POTUS has committed the U.S. to muzzling its pets in Tel Aviv. If they ignore their master, Iran will school them. Any threat against our People and Leadership will receive Immediate Powerful Response."