New Delhi, July 3 -- As the Trump administration pursued a high-stakes deal with Iran to end the war that began in late February, senior Washington officials feared Israel planned to kill Tehran's top negotiators.

Citing current and former officials, the Washington Post reported that the US strongly opposed killing Tehran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and took the unusual step this spring of using intermediaries to warn Tehran that Israel was planning to assassinate them.

A US official told WaPo, "You kill those folks, and you're killing the pragmatists." Another added that back in March, when the Trump administration began exploring diplomatic ways to end the war in Iran, several ...