According to three U.S. officials familiar with the planning of the operation, former President Donald Trump this week mischaracterized Israel‘s role in his administration’s assassination of Iran’s top commander in 2020.
Israel abruptly withdrew the night before the operation that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, according to Trump, who claimed that the country had originally planned to take part. Following months of collaboration with the United States on the operation, Trump harshly chastised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his remarks, which he made in front of an audience at his Mar-a-Lago club in South Florida.
Trump’s claims, according to American officials who are aware of the preparations, are wholly untrue. A former top official in the White House said of the Israelis, “They were never on board with it.” They have always viewed it as a risky and unstable concept.
According to a former Trump administration source who was acquainted with the plans, the generals present in Washington appeared to take a collective breath as Trump decided to move forward with the Soleimani strike.
The CIA chose not to respond. Requests for reaction from the Trump campaign, Central Command of the US military, and the Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately receive a response.
If the remarks made by the previous president were true, it would have been a huge and secret disclosure.
Israel had been planning and preparing to do this with us for months, according to Trump’s statement on Wednesday. The night before the attack, I received a call informing me that Israel would not be taking part. We had everything prepared.
Trump continued, calling Netanyahu by his nickname, “Bibi Netanyahu,” saying, “I’ll never forget that he let us down.”
He declared, “That was a very terrible thing.” “Then Bibi made an attempt to claim credit for it. I didn’t feel too good after that.
According to the initial story from NBC News at the time, Israeli intelligence assisted American intelligence agencies in verifying Soleimani’s whereabouts. Soleimani was subsequently assassinated by the US in a drone strike in Baghdad.
According to the U.S. officials involved in the planning, Israel was never a part of the operation.
Trump is being prosecuted by the federal government for handling secret papers after leaving the White House.
The remarks made by Trump on Wednesday were a part of a string of harsh criticisms of Netanyahu made in the days following the terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas. Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, was also referred to by Trump on Wednesday as a “jerk.”