The most detailed account of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28: calls, intel, decisions

Less than 48 hours before the US-Israeli attack on Iran was first reported, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly called President Donald Trump to explain the reasoning behind launching a complex, far-reaching war against which the US leader once campaigned. Track the latest updates on the US-Iran war here

Both Trump and Netanyahu knew from intelligence briefings earlier that week that Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene And his senior aides were expected to gather at his compound in Tehran, exposing him to an “assassination attack” – an attack targeting a country’s top leadership, a term often used by Israel but historically less frequently used by the United States.

However, updated intelligence indicated the meeting had been moved from Saturday night to Saturday morning, Reuters reported three people briefed on the call. The call was not reported earlier.

The Justice Department has charged a Pakistani man with trying to recruit individuals to the United States for the scheme, which was aimed at retaliating for Washington’s January 2020 killing of top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani.

By the time the call took place, Trump had already approved the concept of a U.S. military operation against Iran but had not yet determined the timing or conditions under which the United States would participate, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of internal discussions.

For several weeks, the US military had been increasing its presence in the region, leading many within the administration to believe that it was only a matter of time before the President decided to proceed further. A tentative date had been abandoned just a few days earlier due to bad weather.

While Netanyahu argued that Trump could make history by helping topple the Iranian leadership long despised by the West and many Iranians, the report said he suggested that Iranians could also rise up, overthrowing the democratic system that had ruled the country since 1979 and has been a major source of global terrorism and instability ever since.

The first bomb was dropped on the morning of Saturday, 28 February. That evening, Trump announced that Khamenei was dead.

In response to a request for comment, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly did not directly address the phone call between Trump and Netanyahu, but told Reuters the military campaign was aimed at “destroying the Iranian regime’s ballistic missile and production capability, destroying the Iranian regime’s navy, eliminating their ability to arm proxies, and guaranteeing that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.”

Neither Netanyahu’s office nor Iran’s UN representative responded to requests for comment.

Trump has also publicly stated that the decision to attack was his sole decision.

The report, based on officials and individuals close to both leaders who spoke largely anonymously due to the sensitivity of internal deliberations, does not indicate that Netanyahu pressured Trump into war. However, it did show that the Israeli leader was a staunch supporter and that the outlines of his decision — which included the opportunity to eliminate an Iranian leader who allegedly oversaw efforts to kill Trump — resonated with the president.

US Secretary of Defense pete hegseth Suggesting in early March that revenge was at least one motivation for the operation, he told reporters, “Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh.”

But as talks over Iran’s nuclear program failed to reach an agreement last spring, Trump began considering a strike, according to three people familiar with White House deliberations.

The first attack occurred in June, when Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities and missile sites, killing several Iranian leaders. The US later joined the campaign with strikes on three critical Iranian nuclear facilities – NatanzIsfahan and Fordow – with bunker buster bombs, and when the joint operation ended after 12 days, Trump publicly celebrated its success, saying the US had “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Months later, discussions resumed between the US and Israel regarding additional missile facilities and a second air campaign aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. All this happened when America also showed interest in resuming talks with Iran.

Israel also wanted kill khameneiA long-standing geopolitical rival that has repeatedly launched missiles at Israel and backed heavily armed proxy forces around the country. These included the Hamas terrorist group, which launched a surprise attack from Gaza on October 7, 2023, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Defense Minister Israel Katz told Israel’s N12 News on March 5 that Israeli officials began planning their attack under the assumption that they would act alone.

During Trump’s visit to his Mar-a-Lago estate in December FloridaNetanyahu told Trump he was not entirely satisfied with the results of the June joint campaign, according to two people familiar with their relationship, who spoke anonymously.

Trump reportedly displayed openness to another bombing campaign. But he also wanted to try another round of diplomatic talks, sources said.

A U.S. operation on January 3 to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas – which resulted in no U.S. casualties while removing a long-standing U.S. rival – demonstrated that ambitious military actions can be executed with minimal collateral impact on U.S. forces.

Later that month, massive anti-government protests broke out in Iran, followed by a harsh crackdown by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which left thousands dead. Trump promised to support the protesters but took no immediate public action.

However, privately, cooperation between the Israel Defense Forces intensified (e d f) and the U.S. military’s Middle East command, CENTCOM, with joint planning during secret meetings, two Israeli officials said, speaking anonymously.

Shortly thereafter, during Netanyahu’s February visit to Washington, he briefed Trump on Iran’s expanding ballistic missile program, highlighting specific sites of concern. He also outlined the risks posed by the program, according to three people familiar with the private discussions, including the possibility that Iran could eventually gain the ability to attack the American homeland.

The White House did not respond to questions about Trump’s December and February meetings with Netanyahu.

According to two people familiar with those briefings, Trump outlined to Pentagon and intelligence officials the potential benefits of a successful strike, including the destruction of Iran’s missile program.

Before the Netanyahu-Trump phone call, the Secretary of State marco rubio On February 24, a small group of senior congressional leaders were told that Israel could attack Iran regardless of US involvement and that Iran would retaliate against US targets, three people briefed on the meeting said.

According to three sources familiar with the intelligence reports, behind Rubio’s warning was an assessment by US intelligence officials that such an attack would trigger retaliatory attacks against US diplomatic and military facilities as well as US Gulf allies.

Trump was also told there was a possibility, albeit small, that eliminating Iran’s top leadership could lead to a government in Tehran more willing to negotiate with Washington, according to two additional people familiar with Rubio’s briefing.

Read this also Khamenei to Larijani: Iran’s top leaders killed in war whom it wants to avenge

One of Netanyahu’s arguments during the call shortly before Trump issued the final order for the strike was the possibility of regime change, according to people briefed on the discussions.

However, that view was not shared by the Central Intelligence Agency, which had assessed weeks earlier that if Khamenei were killed he would likely be succeeded by an internal hard-liner, as Reuters previously reported.

The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After Khamenei’s death, Trump repeatedly called for a rebellion. The war is now in its fourth week and the region remains engulfed in conflict, with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards continuing to patrol the streets while millions of Iranians remain inside their homes.

Khamenei’s son mojtabaA man considered more staunchly anti-American than his father has been named Iran’s new supreme leader.