This article has since been revised. Comments on revisions are at the bottom of the report.
The US National Security Council denied reports on Wednesday that a high-ranking American security delegation, mediated by Oman, secretly traveled to Tehran to share information in an effort to appease Iran.
The report first originated from a Fox News article, which has since been taken down, citing a report in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida, which allegedly spoke to an unnamed source in Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
“This is categorically false,” a US National Security Council spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post.
Fox News reported that the delegation allegedly sought to deliver messages to Tehran in order to de-escalate the tensions in the region between Iran and Israel.
According to the report, this delegation was sent to convey to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that the Biden-Harris administration was "kept in the dark" by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the assassinations of Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah's Fuad Shukr. Israel took responsibility for the assassination of Shukr but has yet to comment on the death of Haniyeh in Tehran.
Allegations behind the death of Hamas leader Haniyeh
Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device that was smuggled into his guesthouse in Tehran, the New York Times reported, and the Jerusalem Post independently confirmed. The bomb was hidden in June and utilized remote technology.
Fox News also reported on the recent development, noting that the American delegation was speculated to arrive in Iran through Turkey, landing at the Payam-e-Khorram Airport in Karaj last Thursday and engaging in a two-hour meeting with Iranian officials before returning to Turkey.
Allegedly, the American delegation presented a list with the names of ten Mossad agents within Iran whom the Americans believed were involved in the assassination, directly or indirectly.
The original version of this article included that the original Al Jarida report said that the Americans would have reportedly done this as a "good faith" initiative in response to Israel's strikes, which were carried out without American coordination. This article has been edited since.