Iran has launched a wide-ranging investigation into Israel’s attempted assassination of President Masoud Pezeshkian, with suspicions of an inside agent, Al Jazeera reported, citing an unnamed senior Iranian official.
“The assassination attempt on President Pezeshkian will not go unanswered — Israel will pay the price,” the official was quoted as saying.
“Israel deliberately targeted the Iranian president during an important National Security Council meeting during the war,” the official added.
In addition to the president, the official said the operation targeted “the heads of the executive, legislative, and judicial authorities,” describing it as part of “an Israeli plan aimed at overthrowing the regime in the country.”
The report comes a day after IRGC-affiliated Fars news reported that Pezeshkian sustained a leg injury following an Israeli airstrike on a meeting of Iran's Supreme National Security Council in the lower floors of a building in western Tehran on June 16.
The Israeli military declined to comment about the report when contacted by Iran International.
The Fars report said that in addition to Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Judiciary chief Mohseni Ejei and other senior officials were attending the meeting.
Six bombs or missiles targeted the building’s entry and exit points in order to block escape routes and disrupt airflow, Fars News said, adding that the attack was modeled after an operation designed to assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Following the explosions, power to the floor was cut, but the officials managed to escape through an emergency hatch that had been prepared in advance, the report said.
While the report did not specify the location of the meeting, the Israeli airstrike is believed to have targeted a building in Tehran’s Shahrak-e Bagheri district on June 16.
