Tehran (AFP) – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in an interview released on Monday that Israel, which last month fought a 12-day war with Iran, had attempted to assassinate him.
The remarks came less than a month after Israel launched its unprecedented June 13 bombing campaign against Iran, killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists.
The Israeli attacks took place two days before Tehran and Washington were set to meet for a new round of nuclear talks, stalling negotiations that were aimed at reaching a deal over Iran's atomic programme.
"They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed," Pezeshkian told US media figure Tucker Carlson in response to a question on whether he believed Israel had tried to kill him.
"It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting... they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting," he said according to a translation of his remarks from Persian, in apparent reference to an alleged assassination attempt during the recent war.
More than 900 people were killed in Iran during the conflict, according to the judiciary.
The Israeli attacks drew waves of retaliatory drone and missile fire, killing 28 people in Israel, according to authorities.
The 12-day war between Iran and Israel saw it, along with the United States, launching strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.
A ceasefire between Iran and Israel took hold since June 24.
On June 16, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule out plans to assassinate Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying it would "end the conflict" after reports emerged at the time that US President Donald Trump had vetoed the move.
During the interview with Carlson, Pezeshkian accused Netanyahu of pursuing his "own agenda" of "forever wars" in the Middle East, and urged the United States not to be dragged into it.
"The US adminstration should refrain from getting involved in a war that is not America's war, it is Netanyahu's war," he said.
He added that his country has "no problem" restarting nuclear talks, provided that trust can be reestablished between the two countries.
"We see no problem in re-entering the negotiations," the Iranian president said.
"There is a condition ... for restarting the talks. How are we going to trust the United States again?"
"We re-entered the negotiations, then how can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks the Israeli regime will not be given the permission again to attack us."