Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was injured during one of Israel’s attacks on Iran last month, two U.S. intelligence sources have confirmed to CBS News.
The sources told CBS News that reports in Iranian state-run media are accurate that Pezeshkian was attending a Supreme National Security Council meeting when the Israeli strike happened. The state media report said he sustained leg injuries while escaping through an emergency shaft.
It remains unclear if he was intentionally targeted.
During an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Pezeshkian claimed Israel attempted to assassinate him by bombarding an area in which he was participating in a meeting.
Asked whether he believed Israel had tried to kill him, Pezeshkian responded, “They did try, yes. And they acted accordingly, but they failed.”
“It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting. We were discussing the ways to move forward. But thanks to the intelligence by the spies that they had, they tried to bombard the area…in which we were holding that meeting,” he said in the interview, which was translated from Farsi.
Pereshkian did not specify the exact date of the strike.
The White House has not commented on the report, and neither has the Israeli government. An Iranian government official declined to comment.
The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran killed hundreds in Iran and 28 in Israel. Both Israel and Iran claimed victory after a ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration.
Some of Iran’s commanders were killed in the conflict, including the chief of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, and the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
The U.S. also conducted airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities during the conflict.
