- Web Desk
- Jan 08, 2026
Israel attempted to assassinate me, ‘US investors are welcomed’: Pezeshkian
TEHRAN: 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.
At the same time, he expressed the Iranian leadership’s desire to attract US investment despite the recent strikes ordered by President Donald Trump on the country’s nuclear installations.
“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.
Read more: Iran wins backing of BRICS allies over Israel, US strikes
“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, without specifying whether the alleged attempt was during the recent war.
US INVESTMENT
At the same time, Pezeshkian said in a series of posts on X that he told Carlson that the country’s supreme leader believed US investors can come to Iran.
In a conversation, Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei] told him “American investors are welcome in Iran. It’s not Iran blocking peace”.
“It’s Netanyahu, again dragging the region toward war. The US. The president [Trump] can stop him,” he added.
he believed that American investors can come to Iran and there are no obstacles to their activities… Unfortunately, it is Israel that does not allow peace in the region,” Pezeshkian said.
The remarks came as a US envoy said on Monday he was “unbelievably satisfied” with Lebanon’s reply to a US proposal on disarming Hezbollah, the strongest of Iranian proxies in Middle East, following meetings in Beirut held hours after Israel launched new air strikes and a cross-border incursion.
Read more: US ‘satisfied’ with Lebanon’s response to disarming Hezbollah
Israel crushed the leadership of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in a bombing campaign last year, one of many fronts on which it has inflicted severe blows against Iran and its allies since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023.
THE 12-DAY WAR
On June 13, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists.
The Israeli attacks took place days before Tehran and Washington were set to meet for a new round of nuclear talks which began on April 12.
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.
At the same time, 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.
‘NO PROBLEM’ IN RE-ENTERING IRAN-US TALKS
At the same time, Pezeshkian said that his country has “no problem” restarting nuclear talks with the United States, provided that trust can be reestablished between the two countries.
“We see no problem in re-entering the negotiations,” Pezeshkian told Carlson. “There is a condition … for restarting the talks. How are we going to trust the United States again?”
In this connection, Pezeshkian was confident that the two sides could resolve the differences.
“I am of the belief that we could very much easily resolve our differences and conflicts with the United States through dialogue and talks.”
SYRIAN QUESTION
Since Oct 7, 2023 attacks, Israel with an active US support has been trying to weaken the Iranian influence in the region by striking hard against its allies in the Middle East.
With Trump pressing ahead with his plans to expand the Abraham Accords, Syria, which is now ruled by Ahmed Al-Sharaa, said on Friday it was willing to cooperate with the United States to reimplement the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, which created a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the two countries’ forces.
The development comes as Iran lost its strong ally Bashar al-Assad in December last, when the forces led by Al-Sharaa overthrew his government.
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