US President Donald Trump reportedly ordered attack on Iran after he received a private message visa an intermediary during the Group of Seven summit in Canada, according to an US news outlet citing three sources.
Iran sent a message to Trump, saying if the he order attacks on its nuclear sites, it would respond by unleashing terrorist attacks on American soil through sleeper cells operating within the US, NBC News reported, citing two officials and another person who knows about the threat.
On June 16, Trump abruptly left the G7 summit a day early amid the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel. He also skipped a series of meetings that were scheduled for June 17. All he said was, "I have to be back, very important."
When asked about potential US military involvement in the conflict on June 16, Trump just said, "I don't want to talk about that."
Less than a week later, the US used "bunker buster bombs" to attack three Iranian nuclear facilities, including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan sites in Operation Midnight Hammer.
Following this, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the threat of sleeper cells has "never been higher", according to a memo accessed by NewsNation. The memo read that The memo said that “thousands of Iranian nationals have been documented entering the United States illegally and countless more were likely in the known and unknown got-a-ways".
Reports suggest that the FBI is closely watching Hezbollah-linked sleeper cells who are staying on American soil and awaiting orders from Iranian handlers.
The US has been facing terrorist threats from Iran ever since Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in January 2020 on Trump's orders. In 2024, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operative and two US-based individuals were charged with plotting assassination of targets who were critical of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's regime. The potential targets included Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton and Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad.