Trump ruled out Israeli assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader, U.S. officials say
Over the weekend, Israel had an operational window to assassinate Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, but President Trump made it clear that he is against such a move, U.S officials told Axios.
The big picture: White House officials say Trump is still trying to prevent further escalation of the war and resume talks with Iran on a nuclear deal.
The Trump administration has so far distanced itself from Israel's operation and argued that it would be illegitimate for Iran to retaliate by striking U.S. targets.
The war between Israel and Iran entered its third day Sunday with both nations exchanging missile fire, including Israel's Air Force attacking an Iraqi air base in the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad — more than 1400 miles from Israel.
Driving the news: A U.S. official told Axios that since the Israeli operation commenced, the Israelis had an opportunity to kill Khamenei.
"We communicated to the Israelis that President Trump is opposed to that. The Iranians haven't killed an American and discussion of killing political leaders should not be on the table," the official said.
Reuters first reported on the discussions between Israel and the U.S. regarding the assassination of the Iranian leader.
What they're saying: Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi denied in an interview on Israel's channel 12 that Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Khamenei and called it "fake news."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also shrugged off the Reuters report in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, saying: "There are a lot of false reports about conversations that didn't take place, but I don't want to get into that."
Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., didn't rule out Khamenei being among the targets for the nation's Defense Forces when speaking on ABC News' "This Week" earlier Sunday.
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