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Iran President Accuses Israel of Assassination Attempt in Interview with Tucker Carlson
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian delivers a speech in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
In an interview released Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Israel attempted to assassinate him, marking a dramatic new chapter in the already volatile tensions between Iran, Israel, and the United States.
Speaking to Carlson from Tehran, Pezeshkian claimed, “They did try, yes,” when asked directly whether Israel had attempted to kill him. “They acted accordingly, but they failed.”
The interview marks the first time Pezeshkian has spoken to a Western journalist since his election earlier this year and comes just weeks after a 12-day exchange of strikes between Iran and Israel, including Israeli airstrikes deep into Iranian territory targeting military sites and nuclear-linked personnel.
The interview, posted on Carlson’s independent media platform, did not touch on Iran’s nuclear program or human rights record, but instead focused on questions about war, trust, and the future of diplomacy. When asked if Iran seeks war with the United States or Israel, Pezeshkian said that it is not “in the interest of the United States to be involved in any kind of war in my region.”
He emphasized that Iran is open to resuming nuclear talks but added that trust had been badly damaged by the Trump administration’s 2018 withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and continued US support for Israeli military operations.
Last month, Israel initiated a series of intense airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, most notably at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, reportedly destroying above‑ground infrastructure and eliminating dozens of scientists. Shortly after, the US entered the fray under “Operation Midnight Hammer,” deploying B‑2 stealth bombers and submarine‑launched Tomahawk missiles to strike the same three sites in a coordinated effort with Israel on June 22.
The operations came amid fears from the US and international intelligence agencies that Tehran had rapidly advanced its nuclear enrichment program, bringing it dangerously close to weapons-grade capability. Since the collapse of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Iran had steadily increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, operating advanced centrifuges in defiance of international limits. As of the latest IAEA reports prior to the recent war, Iran possessed enough enriched material to produce multiple nuclear weapons had they chosen to further refine it.
Carlson, who has previously interviewed controversial figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, offered a platform that was largely non-confrontational, focusing on eliciting Pezeshkian’s views rather than challenging them. This approach drew immediate criticism from analysts and rights advocates, who accused Carlson of giving an authoritarian regime unfiltered airtime.
The interview represents a strategic media move by Iran. Pezeshkian’s decision to speak with Carlson, who retains a large conservative audience in the US despite his departure from Fox, appears to be an effort to bypass traditional diplomatic channels and communicate directly with American viewers. Iranian state media quickly broadcast subtitled clips of the interview, using Pezeshkian’s comments to frame Iran as reasonable and under threat.
US officials have not yet publicly responded to the interview or the assassination allegation. The State Department declined CNN’s request for comment. However, the timing of the interview and its substance may complicate an already fragile diplomatic landscape. With the Trump administration under pressure to manage growing instability in the Middle East, Pezeshkian’s remarks could potentially deepen distrust between the US and Tehran.
Carlson’s interview with Iran’s president has reignited criticism from some conservative commentators and political figures, who accuse him of promoting anti-Israel sentiment and aligning too closely with America’s geopolitical adversaries. Critics point to Carlson’s recent rhetoric questioning US support for Israel and his willingness to offer uncritical platforms to leaders like Vladimir Putin and now Masoud Pezeshkian. For some on the right, this represents a departure from traditional conservative foreign policy views that strongly support Israel and take a hard line on adversarial regimes. The backlash underscores growing fractures within the conservative movement over nationalism, non-interventionism, and America’s role abroad.
The post Iran President Accuses Israel of Assassination Attempt in Interview with Tucker Carlson first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.