As the US and Israel escalate strikes on Iran, a report has detailed the secret conversation US President Donald Trump had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the fateful strike on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A report that appeared in Hebrew media, Israel National News, said Netanyahu called Trump last Monday and informed him that Khamenei and his senior military advisors were to gather on Saturday morning at one place in Tehran, and could be eliminated in an airstrike. The call, which took place on February 23 on a secure line from the White House Situation Room, was reportedly one of the dramatic moments that led to the war that the US and Israel launched five days ago.
At that point, Trump had not yet made a final decision to launch a military operation. The report, quoting Israeli sources, said the conversation was part of a series of talks and coordination between Netanyahu and Trump during the two months leading up to the war. On Thursday, after the American president was convinced that the intelligence was accurate and that negotiations with Iran were stalled, the decision was made to take action.
It was also reported that an initial CIA review, conducted at Trump’s direction, confirmed the information gathered by Israeli military intelligence. Trump told Netanyahu that he would consider moving forward, but was focused at the time on his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
The same day, Trump's envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, called from Geneva after hours of talks with the Iranians to inform him that they believed there would be no deal. The next day, at 3:38 p.m. Eastern Time, Trump gave the final order. Eleven hours later the war began.
The Israeli news report also quoted a source that confirmed that there was extensive contact between Trump and Netanyahu, both in meetings and by phone. He said that although Trump did not make a decision until two days before the strike, the operation had been discussed for weeks between the two countries.
“The initial plan was to launch the attack at the end of March, beginning of April, to give time to build the argument to the American public. But then Bibi started pressing and talking about how they (the Israelis) were holding people like Pahlavi in safe houses. Bibi said they were going to kill them. So they had to hurry up and act," an American source told Israeli National News.
Israel's ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, declined to comment on the details of Netanyahu's conversation with Trump, but denied that Netanyahu was "pressuring" or trying to speed up the timetable. He also said Netanyahu had not made any claim that Iranian opposition leaders were in danger.
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"Over the past year, we have worked in closer coordination than ever with our partners in the US on the issue of Iran, and we see eye to eye on the danger that Iran poses to Israel, the US, and the free world. Anyone who knows President Trump knows that he is a strong leader who cannot be led by the nose,” Leiter told Israeli National News.