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An Iranian official claimed Wednesday that Tehran had passed on an opportunity to target President Donald Trump during his attendance at a NATO summit in Ankara, even as Trump stood on Turkish soil declaring the fragile US-Iran ceasefire finished and threatening fresh strikes.
Ezzatollah Zarghami, a member of Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace and former head of Iran's state broadcaster, posted the claim on X, writing that Trump "was within reach for retaliation" but that Iran had held back "in order to preserve friendship and good neighborly relations with neighbors."
He called on Iranian authorities to summon Türkiye's ambassador in protest, accusing Trump of having directed military orders against Iran while on Turkish territory, and tagging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the post.
The remarks landed on a day of extraordinary escalation. Speaking at a press conference in Ankara alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump declared the ceasefire with Iran effectively dead. "I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum," he told reporters.
He added that Iranian leaders had proven to be "very dishonourable people" and, in a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later in the day, warned he would "very probably" order new strikes on Iran that same night.
Trump himself acknowledged the personal danger the conflict poses to him. Asked at the summit whether security concerns had influenced certain decisions, he did not answer directly but volunteered that he was "No. 1 on the list for killing" by Iran.
"You know what? I may be gone too, because I'm their No. 1 target," he said.
US federal authorities have tracked Iranian threats against Trump for several years. The Justice Department disclosed in 2024 that an Iranian plot to assassinate him before that year's presidential election had been thwarted.
The backdrop to both Trump's remarks and Zarghami's post was a rapidly deteriorating situation. The US and Iran traded strikes again overnight into Wednesday, the second such exchange since the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-June to end a war launched in late February with joint US-Israeli strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Zarghami's reference to "retaliation over Khamenei" placed his remarks squarely within that context, framing Trump's presence in Ankara as an opportunity Iran chose, on principle, not to exploit.
Italy, Germany and France had all denied military bases or overflight rights during the US campaign, which Trump had named Operation Epic Fury.
"Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down," Trump said at the summit. "Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars and they're not there for us?"
He framed the allies' reluctance as a deliberate loyalty test, saying he had wanted "to see whether or not they'd be there."
Trump also repeated threats to draw down the US troop presence in Europe and pressed NATO members to accelerate defense spending, even as the alliance announced military projects worth billions of dollars.
Zarghami's post was notable for its dual message: a public assertion of Iranian capability paired with a claim of deliberate restraint. The Supreme Council of Cyberspace, on which he sits, is an advisory body overseeing digital policy, though its members frequently comment on broader security and foreign affairs.
His remarks have not been echoed or endorsed by any Iranian government ministry or official spokesperson.
Iran's Foreign Ministry, however, took a harder line on the same day, labeling US strikes a "gross violation" of the memorandum of understanding and warning that Iranian armed forces would not hesitate to defend the country's sovereignty.
The Gulf Cooperation Council separately condemned Iranian attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait as violations of those countries' sovereignty.
Trump, for his part, did not entirely close the door on diplomacy, noting that his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner wished to continue negotiations, but said he personally viewed further talks as "a waste of time."
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