Pezeshkian accuses Israel of assasination attempt, ‘destroying’ US-Iran diplomacy

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused Israel of attempting to assassinate him and derailing peace talks with the United States.

In an interview posted Monday by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson on X, Pezeshkian was asked directly whether Israel had tried to kill him. “They did try, yes, and they acted accordingly, but they failed,” he alleged.

Tensions between Israel and Iran escalated sharply on June 13, when Israeli airstrikes inside Iran killed senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. In response, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones targeting Israel.

Tensions between Iran and Israel escalated on June 13, when Israeli airstrikes inside Iran killed senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. In response, Iran launched missile and drone strikes on Israel. The crisis deepened when the US struck Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz on June 22. Iran responded the next day with a ballistic missile attack on Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

A US-brokered ceasefire took effect on June 24 and has held so far.
In his interview with Carlson, Pezeshkian ruled out any US involvement in the alleged assassination attempt, stating firmly, “It was Israel.”

Israel’s mid-June military action notably came just two days before a scheduled sixth round of indirect nuclear talks between Iran and the US in Muscat, Oman. The negotiations - ongoing since April - have since been suspended.

Pezeshkian claimed the Israeli strikes derailed diplomatic progress. “We were going to have the next round of the talks [on June 15], but suddenly, Israel torpedoed the negotiating table,” he said, accusing Israel of “destroying diplomacy.”

The Iranian president also raised concerns over the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), claiming that Israeli intelligence may have obtained sensitive information from its inspections. “We realized that Israel got information from the inspections,” he said.

On Wednesday, Pezeshkian signed a law suspending cooperation with the IAEA. The bill, previously approved by Iran’s parliament and Guardian Council, blocks inspectors from entering the country unless Iran receives guarantees protecting its nuclear infrastructure.

In his interview with Carlson, the Iranian president blamed the IAEA's failure to explicitly condemn the Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites for “a widespread lack of trust among Iranians, legislators, and public opinion.”

He also dismissed accusations that Iran seeks nuclear weapons, calling such claims “a false mentality promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since 1984. “The truth is that we have never been after developing a nuclear bomb. Not in the past, not presently, or in the future,” Pezeshkian insisted.