\n The Israeli intelligence shared with the Trump administration of Iranian threats to assassinate President Donald Trump reflected a desire among elements of Tehran\u2019s hardline leadership to target the American leader, according to an Israeli source and a US official, rather than a specific, detailed plan to carry out such an operation.\n <\/p>\n
\n The new commander of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ahmad Vahidi, was part of the group advocating for such a plan, the Israeli source told CNN. Vahidi has been included in lists of \u201cobstructionists\u201d within the regime who are viewed by the Trump administration as actively undermining negotiations, according to a source familiar with US planning. The US has considered directly targeting leaders on the list if full-scale war resumes, the source said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Two US sources familiar with the matter said recent US intelligence assessments show no indication of a new, specific Iranian plot to kill Trump, but rather a steady drumbeat of chatter about various Iranian actors wanting to do so. The desire to target Trump is not unique to Iran\u2019s leadership. Mourners at the days-long funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by Israel in the opening strikes of the war in late-February, held signs calling on Iran to kill Trump.\n <\/p>\n
\n In a Friday interview with the New York Pos<\/a>t Trump downplayed the significance of the Israeli intelligence, first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, saying that Iran had long threatened his life.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIsrael came up with nothing,\u201d he said, describing himself as Iran\u2019s \u201cnumber one\u201d target \u201cfor a long time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n While US intelligence agencies have continued to pick up chatter about Iranian officials\u2019 threats to Trump, the US president made a surprise swap of aircraft on his way back from a NATO summit on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n \n Instead of the new airplane that had been retrofitted after it was donated by Qatar and only began service this month, Trump used an older aircraft<\/a> that has ferried presidents for decades.\n <\/p>\n \n The switch was made, in part, because of security concerns around the escalating conflict in Iran, according to four US officials.\n <\/p>\n \n While sources at the time said there was no specific, new threat to Trump\u2019s life, the president had mentioned the possibility of an assassination attempt from Iran during the summit<\/a>, following fresh US strikes on the country that shares a border with Turkey.\n <\/p>\n