WP: The strike on Iran was carried out at the request of Israel and Saudi Arabia, which publicly opposed it

Donald Trump launched a large-scale attack on Iran, during which the country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed, partly under the influence of secret lobbying from Israel and Saudi Arabia. Four sources familiar with the situation told The Washington Post.

They say Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has repeatedly called Trump over the past month and urged him to strike Iran, warning that otherwise Tehran will only become stronger. This happened despite the fact that Riyadh publicly advocated a diplomatic settlement. Moreover, shortly before the attack, Saudi Arabia stated that it would not allow its airspace and territory to be used for attacks on Iran. Nevertheless, after the start of the operation, it was Saudi Arabia that became one of the targets of the Iranian retaliatory strike, after which it issued a statement condemning Tehran’s actions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in turn, openly put pressure on Washington to strike at the country, which he considers an existential threat to Israel. According to the publication, Trump eventually ordered a massive air operation against military installations and the leadership of Iran. In the first hour of the attack, Khamenei was killed , as well as a number of other high-ranking Iranian officials.

The decision to strike follows the breakdown of negotiations: US Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner held a third round of talks with Iranian representatives in Geneva, but, according to a senior US administration official, they were convinced that Tehran was committed to maintaining the ability to enrich uranium to create a nuclear bomb. The very next day, Trump publicly stated that he was dissatisfied with the position of the Iranian side in the negotiations. Trump himself attributed the attack to decades-long grievances against Iran, including the 1979 American hostage taking and the death of 241 U.S. service members in a Hezbollah attack in Beirut in 1983.

At the same time, American intelligence agencies, according to the publication, assessed the Iranian threat as not posing an immediate danger to the United States in the next decade. Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, one of the so-called "eight" congressmen who received a classified briefing before the attack, said he did not see a threat that would justify military action. At a briefing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made it clear to lawmakers that the key rationale for this timing was Israel's intention to attack anyway - the only question was whether the United States would act with it or enter the war later, after Iranian strikes on American targets in the region, one person familiar with the matter said.