WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two US officials.

“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said one of the sources, a senior US administration official.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said top U.S. officials have been in constant communications with Israeli officials in the days since Israel launched a massive attack on Iran in a bid to halt its nuclear programme.

They said the Israelis reported that they had an opportunity to kill the top Iranian leader, but Trump waved them off of the plan.

The officials would not say whether Trump himself delivered the message. But Trump has been in frequent communications with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

When asked about Reuters report, Netanyahu, in an interview on Sunday with Fox News’s Bret Baier, said: “There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that.” “But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we’ll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States,” Netanyahu said.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2025