Washington – President Donald Trump had opposed Israeli military action against Iran, favoring negotiations on bombing. But in the days before the strikes, it was convinced that Israel’s greatest anxiety was justified by Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities.
After a fundamental informative session of the President of the Joint Chiefs, the General of the Air Force Dan Caine, on the plans of Israel and the US options. To support his operation, he gave tacit approval to Israel to have it and decided to provide limited support in the United States.
When Caine reported it on June 8, Trump was increasingly frustrated with Iran for not responding to the last proposal of a nuclear agreement. He was still hope that his peace negotiator in Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who had been scheduled to make another round of peace conversations in the region on Sunday, could soon reach an agreement on the line.
Trump also faced private pressure from long -standing allies who advocate more isolationist policies and wanted him to prevent Israel from taking military measures or at least retains the support of the United States for that operation.
This story of Trump’s thought prior to the Israeli operation is based on interviews with five current officials from the United States and two officials of the Middle East, as well as two people with knowledge of the deliberations, two former US officials familiar with the deliberations and a Trump ally. The White House did not comment immediately, and the Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comments.
In recent weeks, Israel was convinced more than the threat that Tehran represented was becoming increasingly serious and urgent. And although he had already decided not to stand on the path of Israel, on Thursday, only a few hours before the strikes began, Trump remained at least with the public hope that diplomacy would win the day.
“I don’t want them to enter, because I think I would blow it, I could actually help him, but he could also blow it, but we have had very good discussions with Iran,” Trump told journalists in a ceremony of invoices. “I prefer the most friendly path.”
Behind the scene, the Israelis had already sat a large part of the bases for Trump’s measured change. Trump had waited for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be persuaded not to set up an attack. But during the past week, he came to accept that Israel was determined to neutralize Iran’s nuclear capabilities and that the United States would have to provide military support for defensive purposes, as well as some intelligence support.
After the strikes began on Thursday night, the Administration struggled to say that it had not provided military assistance to Israel, and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the national security advisor, intentionally omitted any mention of the United States support for Israel’s operations in a statement. But the public statements of the administration the next day left the door open to the United States provided part of the type of intelligence that Israel needed to set up an attack.
Israel was able to carry out its initial attacks mainly with its own intelligence and capacities: kill discussed in the region in the region in recent days in recent days.
But Trump would still not sign everything Israel wanted. After the beginning of their military campaign, the Israelis collected intelligence that could have allowed them to aim and kill the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatolá Ali Khamenei. Netanyahu presented the operation to Trump, who completely opposed the plan and would not allow the United States to participate, according to two US officials. They had not died to the Americans in the conflict, so Trump did not believe that it was appropriate to eliminate Khamenei, the political leader, and recommended against the realization of the operation of the Israelis, the officials said.
On Sunday, it seemed to advocate again for the conversations about strikes, saying on its social media platform, Truth Social: “Iran and Israel should make a deal, and I will make a deal, just as I made India and Pakistan made … many calls and meetings that now take place. I do a lot and never get credit for anything, but that’s fine, people understand.
Trump’s approach to Israel’s military campaign began to take shape last Sunday in Camp David, the presidential retirement in the rural area of Maryland. At that time, Israeli officials had already begun to share extensive information with US officials about their potential operation. Caine, the president of the Joint Chiefs, informed Trump and his national security team on the Israeli plans to attack Iran and US options, according to two US officials and one of the people familiar with the deliberations.
Those options, the three sources said, included logistical support, such as replenishing Israeli fuel aircraft, sharing intelligence and using the electronic warfare capabilities of the US army to help Israel click on enemy weapons and communications. Another option was to provide direct military support to Israel, even causing the US planes to leave ammunition in active combat along with Israeli fighters, for example.
And another option, Caine informed Trump, was to do nothing at all.
Trump has constantly said that he wants to extract the United States from foreign conflicts and has tried to use diplomacy to end the Russian war against Ukraine and fighting in Gaza, although without success.
But Israel was getting anxious, and was not convinced that Trump’s peace plan in the region would work. Netanyahu and his war cabinet had no faith in the negotiations of the United States with Iran that took place in Oman, despite Washington’s public pronouncements that an agreement was close.
For months, the Trump administration has pressed the Israelis so as not to carry out strikes about Iran and warned that the United States would not support them if they did.
At the end of last week, the public tone of the White House began to include more support for Israel, and in private it went from a strong opposition against a generalized military operation to the acceptance that it would probably happen and less resistance to it.
Among the reasons for Trump’s heart change was the statement on Thursday by the United Nations Nuclear Control Agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will breach their non -proliferation requirements. Trump was also worried about the meaning from Israel, the United States and the OIEA that Iran had achieved jumps in his nuclear program, and did not want to be the president on whose clock he could obtain a nuclear weapon.
The United States had already been moving some pieces in its place to prepare for the Israeli attack. In recent days, the US European Command was told. Some of their Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance plans would deviate to the Middle East to carry out surveillance.
Then, in comments that caught little attention last week, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced that more than 20,000 American anti-Drone missiles for kyiv had been diverted to the Middle East.
Trump and Netanyahu spoke several times in the previous week, but for last Monday, Trump convinced that Israel was going to attack and began to put more pieces to help support the strike.
Shortly after that conversation last Monday, the Pentagon ordered the European command to send a navy destroyer to sit to Israel to help defend him in the probable event of a Tehran counterattack, joining two more and a transport group of transporters already there.
Witkoff was expected to travel to Muscat for peace conversations as late as Friday. With the still active conflict, the American side acknowledged that these conversations were wrong. But he is not closing the door to future discussions.
“While there will be no meeting on Sunday, we are still committed to the conversations and we hope that the Iranians will come to the table soon,” said an administration official to news organizations.
