Turkey Exposes Alleged Israeli Fabrication of Iranian Plot to Assassinate Trump

Turkish officials have stated that an Israeli intelligence report claiming Iran planned to assassinate US President Donald Trump during a NATO summit in Ankara was fabricated. The report was allegedly designed to derail US-Iran negotiations aimed at permanently ending the war and to present Israel as Trump’s protector.

According to Middle East Eye (MEE), which cited Turkish officials and sources, the Israeli intelligence report was intended to convince the US Secret Service that Iran was plotting to kill Trump during the July summit. "Of course, we took the report very seriously and tried to help our American colleagues as much as possible. However, it was very clear to us that this report was completely false," a source told MEE.

The MEE report suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his team were attempting to portray themselves as Trump’s protectors. The alleged fabrication was also seen as an effort to undermine Trump’s attempts to reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had closed since the war began.

Turkish officials noted that the alleged assassination plan would have seriously damaged relations between Turkey and Iran, which they described as remaining "relatively stable" since the start of the US-Israeli strikes. They added that Iranian authorities had publicly thanked Turkey on several occasions for preventing alleged US-Israeli plans to stir unrest in Kurdish-dominated regions bordering Turkey.

The revelation follows a previous report that Trump was secretly moved from Air Force One to a smaller, less conspicuous C-32A military aircraft using catering trucks to leave Turkey on 8 July. The US Secret Service had deemed the threat of an Iranian missile attack credible and imminent, prompting the extraordinary security operation.