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Trump opposed Israeli plan to kill Iranian supreme leader – US official

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US President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a senior US official told AFP Sunday.

“We found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran’s supreme leader. President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to,” said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Earlier Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dodged a question about reports that Trump had asked his country not to kill Khamenei.

“I’m not going to get into that,” he told Fox News.

“But I can tell you,… we’ll do what we need to do, and I think the United States knows what is good for the United States,” he said.

The comments came as Israel and Iran exchanged another barrage of missiles Sunday, with residents told to seek shelter as booms were heard over Jerusalem, and aerial defense systems reportedly activated in Tehran.

After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, the latest conflict marked the first time the countries have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the entire Middle East.

It began Friday, when Israel launched an attack that has killed top military commanders and nuclear scientists, and struck military bases, nuclear sites and residential areas across the country.

As Israel struck targets across Iran again on Sunday, Netanyahu vowed to make the country pay a “heavy price” for killing Israeli civilians.

He also strongly suggested to Fox News that Israel had killed Iran’s intelligence chief Mohammad Kazemi, saying it had recently “got the chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran” as its jets carried out raids over the capital.

Trump has insisted that Washington, a strong ally of Israel, “had nothing to do” with Israel’s bombing campaign.

But he also threatened to unleash “the full strength and might” of the US military if Iran attacked US interests, later urging the two foes to “make a deal.”

Trump stressed to ABC News Sunday that the United States is “not at this moment” involved in the military action, but said it was “possible we could get involved.”

He also said he would be “open” to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin being a mediator to resolve the conflict.

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Iran reports 3,468 dead in war with US, Israel

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April 19, 2026

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Iran’s state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said on Saturday that the war with the United States and Israel had killed more than 3,400 people in the Islamic republic.

The announcement comes in the midst of a two-week ceasefire in the conflict, which erupted in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.

Foundation head Ahmad Mousavi was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying that 3,468 “martyrs… fell during the recent conflict”.

A previous toll from the head of the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization issued on April 12 said 3,375 people in Iran had been killed in the war.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on April 7 that at least 3,636 people had been killed, including 1,701 civilians — among them at least 254 children — as well as 1,221 military personnel and 714 people whose status had not been classified.

Due to reporting restrictions, AFP is not able to access the sites of strikes nor to independently verify tolls in Iran.

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Trump says ‘not a big fan’ of Pope Leo after his anti-war message

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2 weeks ago

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April 13, 2026

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US President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace.

“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

He accused the pontiff of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”

On Saturday, the 70-year-old American pope publicly implored leaders to end the violence, telling worshippers at St. Peter’s Basilica: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”

US President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace.

“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

He accused the pontiff of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”

On Saturday, the 70-year-old American pope publicly implored leaders to end the violence, telling worshippers at St. Peter’s Basilica: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”

US President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace.

“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

He accused the pontiff of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”

On Saturday, the 70-year-old American pope publicly implored leaders to end the violence, telling worshippers at St. Peter’s Basilica: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”

 

Trump reiterated his comments to reporters with a post on Truth Social saying: “I don’t want a Pope who think it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”

Washington and the Vatican have recently denied reports of a rift.

On Friday, a Vatican official denied reports that a top Pentagon official gave the church’s envoy to the United States a “bitter lecture” over Pope Leo’s criticisms of the Trump administration.

 

The story in the Free Press — which the Pentagon had already dismissed as “distorted” — reported that Cardinal Christophe Pierre was summoned in January to the Pentagon, where he was given a dressing-down by US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Elbridge Colby.

The military official reportedly told the cardinal that the United States “has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side.”

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement, “The account presented by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way.”

While both parties insist the meeting was cordial, the Holy See and the White House have openly been at odds over the Trump administration’s hardline mass deportation campaign — which the pope called “inhuman” — and the use of military force in the Middle East and Venezuela.

When Trump made genocidal threats against Iran on Tuesday, saying “A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” — the pontiff slammed the “truly unacceptable” statement and urged parties to “come back to the table” for negotiations.

Earlier this month, Pope Leo hailed the news of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran as a “sign of real hope.”

But peace talks between the United States and Iran, held in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, ended abruptly Saturday with US Vice President JD Vance telling reporters after a marathon session of talks that Washington has delivered its “final and best offer.”

 

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China rejects claims of supplying weapons to Iran

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2 weeks ago

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April 13, 2026

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China on Monday called reports it had supplied or intended to supply weapons to Iran “baseless smears”, after several outlets quoted US intelligence sources to that effect.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump threatened Beijing with a “staggering” new tariff of 50 percent if it were to provide military assistance to Tehran.

His comments came the same day US outlet CNN reported that US intelligence indicated China was preparing to deliver new air defence systems to Iran within the next few weeks, citing three people familiar with the assessments.

Over the weekend, The New York Times quoted US officials as saying US intelligence suggested Beijing might have already sent a shipment of shoulder-fired missiles.

China denied the reports, saying Monday it had “always adopted a cautious and responsible attitude towards the export of military items, implementing strict controls in accordance with its own export control laws and regulations and its international obligations”.

“We oppose baseless smears or malicious association,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular news briefing.

China is a key economic partner of Iran — it buys most of the Middle Eastern country’s oil.

The countries have no formal military pact, though, and many analysts say Beijing largely sees the relationship between the two as transactional.

China also has strong economic ties to the Gulf countries and has criticised Iran’s attacks on them over the course of the war.

 

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