Iranian president says Israel tried to assassinate him

 Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the war against Israel a few weeks ago, he said in an interview aired on Monday.

"I was in a meeting. We were discussing the ways to [take things] forward," Pezeshkian said of one day during the war in an interview with US talk show host Tucker Carlson.

"They tried to bombard the area ... in which we were holding that meeting," Pezeshkian said, referring to Israeli attacks in the capital Tehran. He said he was not afraid to die.

This is the first interview with the Iranian president after the 12-Day War. On June 13, Israel attacked Iran and subsequently bombarded military and civilian targets across large parts of the country. Iran's armed forces responded with missile fire on Israel.

Nearly a week later, the United States entered the war and attacked three key Iranian nuclear facilities. A ceasefire is now in place.

Before the outbreak of war, Washington and Tehran had been negotiating for nearly two months over Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

In the interview, Pezeshkian reaffirmed the Iranian government's fundamental willingness to negotiate with the US but also expressed scepticism.

"How are we going to trust the United States again? [If] we re-enter the negotiations, then how can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks, the Israeli regime will not be given the permission again to attack us?" the Iranian president asked.

He accused Israel of having torpedoed the negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

Pezeshkian reiterated that his country does not intend to arm itself with nuclear weapons.

"It was [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu who, since 1984, has created this false mentality that Iran seeks a nuclear bomb ... But the truth is that we have never been after developing a nuclear bomb. Not in the past, not presently, or in the future," Pezeshkian said.