Posted on 06/15/2025 11:01:26 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday.
"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 U.S. 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 program.
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 Channel's "Special Report With 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.
Trump has been holding out hope for a resumption of U.S.-Iranian negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program. Talks that had been scheduled for Sunday in Oman were canceled as a result of the strikes.
Trump told Reuters on Friday that "we knew everything" about the Israeli strikes.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
If true, dumb play.
Khameini has killed many Americans.
I hope Israel kills him.
Hoping there is a difference between public and back channel coms.
Trump can’t veto what Israel does. He is correct to not give his blessing though. 😋👍
Trump is unclear on the concept of war.
The United States continue to keep Israel from achieving victory. Not good.
Any regime change in Iran must come from within.
The last thing we need is to get involved in this war directly, occupy and try to nation build in Iran.
Read somewhere that Ali ran off to Russia. Hope he has a nice retirement there.
If True, not good. We could have offed the rag head and invited the current Shah to return.
Great. So all Israel needs now is to deliver a dead American.
Israel doesn't have the capacity to facilitate regime in Iran. That has to come from within.
I...am not happy.
One take: They got to him. Only hope is that ayatollah ran and regime change happens in his absence. But without US support, I don’t see the Iranian people defeating the hardliners. If they didn’t get to him, then assets should be en route to support Iranian regime change.
If they DID get to him, given the lack of evidence for Israeli success with their piss poor attack and total lack of US military support, kiss the MAGA agenda goodbye and keep your powder dry. 2025 is looking to be a very, very bad year.
How are we going to pull that off without being directly involved in Iran, occupying it and trying another nation building project?
Putting the kibosh on an assassination isn’t very king-like.
Our CIA has been involved in regime change since it's inception.
We do nothing.
All Mossad....gringo.
Netanyahu can flip that to his advantage:
“Yes, we can do it. Good thing for you your ‘Great Satan’ holds us back!”
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