Trump ruled out Israeli assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader, U.S. officials say

• The Trump administration has so far distanced itself from Israel's operation and argued that it would be illegitimate for Iran to retaliate by striking U.S. targets.
• The war between Israel and Iran entered its third day Sunday with both nations exchanging missile fire, including Israel's Air Force attacking an air base in the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad — more than 1,400 miles from Israel.

Driving the news: A U.S. official told Axios that since the Israeli operation commenced, the Israelis had an opportunity to kill Khamenei.

• "We communicated to the Israelis that President Trump is opposed to that. The Iranians haven't killed an American and discussion of killing political leaders should not be on the table," the official said.
• Reuters first reported on the discussions between Israel and the U.S. regarding the assassination of the Iranian leader.

What they're saying: Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi denied in an interview on Israel's Channel 12 that Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Khamenei and called it "fake news."

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also shrugged off the Reuters report in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, saying: "There are a lot of false reports about conversations that didn't take place, but I don't want to get into that."

Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., didn't rule out Khamenei being among the targets for the nation's Defense Forces when speaking on ABC News' "This Week" earlier Sunday.

• "I think it's fair to say that nobody who's threatening the destruction of Israel should be off the target list," he said.

Editor's note: This article has been corrected to reflect that Israel's Air Force attacked an Iranian air base in Mashad (not Iraqi).