Over the past few days the US administration has been at odds with each other trying to explain the motivation for the initial strike on Iran which killed the Iran leader and several top officials.
However, Axios has reported yesterday that no plan preceded the decision to launch the attack.
According to Axios, it all started on Monday, February 23, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Trump to tell him the Israeli’s had intelligence that Iran’s Supreme Leader would be meeting with his top advisors in Tehran on the morning of Saturday, February 28.
Netanyahu told Trump that the entire leadership could be killed in one big airstrike, Axios reported.
It was that initial February 23 call from Netanyahu that set things in motion for the devastating attack.
Insiders told Axios that Trump was already leaning toward attacking Iran before learning the new intelligence about Khamenei. No decision had been taken on the date, but that changed with Netanyahu’s call.
Trump then asked the CIA to confirm the intelligence received from the Netanyahu. While the intelligence was being confirmed, Trump told Netanyahu he would consider moving forward, Axios reported.
By Thursday, the CIA had “confirmed that these people were all going to be together, and we needed to take advantage of it,” a source told Axios.
Later that day Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff called from Geneva after hours of talks with Iranian officials and delivered a blunt verdict: Negotiations were going nowhere.
This convinced Trump that the intelligence was solid, and diplomacy was dead. On Friday at 3:38 pm ET, he gave the final order and the next take the strike that took out Khamenei and his senior advisors took place.
A US official told Axios that the original plan called for a strike in late March or early April, giving the administration time to build public support. However, Netanyahu wanted the attack much sooner.
Axios reported that Netanyahu began “agitating” and warning that Iranian opposition leaders sheltering in safe houses were in danger of being killed by the regime.
Rather than spending weeks building the public case for war, the White House found itself justifying the strikes after the bombs had already fallen.
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that “Iran cannot outlast us” as the US signalled a widening military campaign following coordinated strikes with Israel since Saturday, reports Anadulo.
“I stand before you today with one unmistakable message about Operation Epic Fury. America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy, under the direct command of President (Donald) Trump,” Hegseth said at a news conference alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine.
“They are toast, and they know it … and we have only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy, and defeat their capabilities — just four days in,” he said.