US officials feared Israel might kill Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf during cease-fire negotiations that began in April, and they warned Iran through other Middle Eastern countries. The concern centered on whether Israel would use the talks as cover to strike Iran’s top negotiators, including Abbas Araghchi.
In March, The reported that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Abbas Araghchi were on an Israeli target list. The same report said Israel later removed both names as negotiations between the US and Iran were discussed, and a US official and a Middle East official said the Trump administration played a more active role in Ghalibaf’s removal.
April talks and the warning route
The US directly asked Israel not to target Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and officials feared any attempt on Iranian leaders’ lives would reignite the fighting after the talks began. The warning reached Iran indirectly, through other Middle Eastern countries, rather than through a public statement that would have exposed the channel before it mattered.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf then flew to Islamabad in April for talks with JD Vance. Pakistani fighter jets escorted the airplanes carrying the Iranian delegation from the border to Islamabad and back, a sign that the trip was being handled with unusual care.
Tehran in April
On the way back to Tehran in April, Iranian security forces reportedly told Ghalibaf’s plane that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iran’s airspace from the border near Iraq and intended to attack him. The plane made an emergency landing near the border, and the delegation continued to Tehran by land.
That episode came after the March report that Ghalibaf had already been placed on, and then removed from, an Israeli target list. The overlap between a negotiation track and a reported strike risk is what made the April warning so consequential for US and Iran.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Abbas Araghchi
The case also fits a pattern that has already put Ghalibaf in danger before. He was almost killed in June 2025 during the 12-day war, and he was almost killed again during the 2026 war, when he needed to be rescued from beneath rubble.
For now, the practical takeaway is narrow but stark: Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf remained in the diplomatic line of fire even after Israel reportedly removed him from its target list, and the next unresolved question is what intelligence persuaded US officials that the threat still had to be passed on during the April talks.
