President Donald Trump provided a major update as tensions are mounting between Israel and Iran.
During a phone interview, Trump told Fox News’s chief political anchor Bret Baier that he was aware that Israel was going to conduct preemptive strikes on Iran before they happened.
“I just spoke to President Trump. One thing the president was aware of Israel’s action before it happened. He gave me a quote. He said: ‘Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb. We’re hoping to get back to the negotiating table.’ The President is looking to see if there is retaliation… the US will defend itself and Israel if Iran retaliates,” Baier said.
Israeli airstrikes on Iran killed three of the country’s senior military commanders: Hossein Salami, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces, and Gholam-Ali Rashid, Commander of the Iranian Emergency Command.
Trump has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu multiple times recently.
The Trump administration contacted at least one important Middle Eastern ally to recognize the impending strike but stated that the United States was not participating.
The president expressed hope that Iran will return to the negotiation table, despite Iran’s vow to withdraw from future discussions. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his colleagues were supposed to meet with Iranian counterparts in Oman on Sunday.
Israeli troops employed over 200 fighter planes to hit targets in Iran, destroying dozens of radars, surface-to-air missile launchers, and nuclear installations. Hours later, Iran sent over 100 retaliation drones into Israel, which Israeli troops said they were attempting to intercept.
Trump stated that he is monitoring for any reprisal, and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is on full alert. He stated that the United States is prepared to defend itself and Israel if Iran retaliates. Recently, the United States has restocked Iron Dome missiles.
The president is scheduled to attend a National Security Council meeting later Friday morning.
WATCH:
President Donald Trump urged Iran to reach an agreement and warned that “the next already planned attacks” would be “even more brutal” than the initial strikes of Israel’s Operation Rising Lion.
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.”
A top Israeli security official told Fox News that Israel was able to “trick” top commanders of Iran’s air force into gathering for a meeting.
“We carried out specific activities to help us learn more about them, and then used that information to influence their behavior,” the official said. “We knew this would lead them to meet — but more importantly, we knew how to keep them there.”
The official noted that the attacks were more successful than Israel had expected. According to the source, air defense systems and ballistic missiles designed for use against Israel were preemptively attacked.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said in a video update that was posted around 2:00 a.m. ET, that Israel had seen “considerable success” in its historic preemptive strike on Iran.
He also called for “patience and perseverance,” saying that it was going to be a “long haul.”
“If Iran would have achieved a nuclear weapon and would have used it, the eulogies for the State of Israel would have been the most beautiful eulogies ever written. But we’re not interested in eulogies, we’re interested in life. We’ve come home to live and to live in peace. And we’re going to pursue peace through strength at every cost.”
