President Donald Trump confirmed Friday that the United States was fully aware of Israel’s plans to launch airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear sites and top officials, dismissing the suggestion that Israel had only given him a “heads-up.”
“Heads-up? It wasn’t a heads-up. It was, we know what’s going on,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview, adding that he talked with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and will speak with Netanyahu again on Friday. Trump administration officials said the United States was not directly involved in the Israeli offensive.
Early Friday morning, around 200 Israeli jets struck dozens of military and nuclear targets across Iran. The Israel Defense Forces described the attack as a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive,” citing “high-quality intelligence” and the Islamic Republic’s “ongoing aggression against Israel.”
Israeli officials said the IDF eliminated multiple senior Iranian generals, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in chief Hossein Salami and Iranian Armed Forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri. The operation also killed six top nuclear scientists and more than a dozen senior commanders tied to Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs, according to Israeli officials.
Trump, who has repeatedly urged Tehran to return to the negotiating table, said the “very successful” attack came 61 days after he warned Iranian leaders to make a deal within 60 days or face consequences. “They should have made a deal and they still can make a deal while they have something left—they still can,” Trump told the Journal.
“We of course support Israel, obviously, and supported it like nobody has ever supported it,” Trump said during a phone call with CNN’s Dana Bash.
Netanyahu said Friday that the operation will “continue for as many days as it takes to remove” Iran’s threat to “Israel’s very survival.”
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