President’s two-week window for talks was a smokescreen, officials say, as U.S. and Israel hit Iranian nuclear sites.
By David Brummer, World Israel News
U.S. President Donald Trump gave the final authorization to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday afternoon, hours before U.S. bombers and submarines launched a powerful coordinated assault on three major Iranian nuclear sites.
The decision, made from his private club in New Jersey, came despite public statements that Tehran had two more weeks to agree to American demands, a promise aides now say was intended to mislead Iran and buy strategic surprise, according to reporting in both the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic.
“The goal was to create a situation when everyone wasn’t expecting it,” a senior administration official said.
Within hours, U.S. B-2 stealth bombers dropped several massive bunker-busting bombs on the heavily fortified Fordow nuclear site, while attack submarines launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at Natanz and Isfahan—locations tied to Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
The White House later released images of Trump in a red “Make America Great Again” hat, flanked by top national security aides in the Situation Room as the strike unfolded.
In his Saturday night address, Trump hailed the mission as “a spectacular military success” and claimed that Iran’s nuclear program had been “completely and totally obliterated.”
However, key questions remain—chiefly, how much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was destroyed and how Tehran might retaliate.
The strikes, closely coordinated with Israel, followed weeks of what appeared to be behind-the-scenes planning and indecision.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already launched his own campaign of strikes against Iran a week earlier, paving the way for the U.S. to join.
Trump, initially hesitant to expand U.S. involvement, became more inclined to act after seeing the effectiveness of Israel’s attacks, officials said.
Despite Trump’s public insistence that diplomacy was still on the table—telling reporters Thursday that he would give Iran a maximum of two weeks—senior officials confirmed that the president had already made up his mind to act days earlier.
“It was a feint,” one official said. “By then, the decision was done.”
Trump also personally rebuffed an offer by Russian President Vladimir Putin to broker a ceasefire, telling him, “Vladimir, let’s mediate Russia first,” according to a senior administration source.
U.S. officials stressed that the operation was meant as a “one-off” strike rather than the beginning of a regime-change war.
Nonetheless, Iran has threatened to respond, and U.S. embassies and military bases across the Middle East are now on heightened alert.
There is also concern that Iran could target commercial shipping or disrupt oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran vowed not to halt its efforts, calling the program a national achievement “built on the blood of nuclear martyrs.”
Trump’s aides said he had long hoped for a deal with Tehran but ultimately grew convinced that Iran would only respond to force.
Intelligence assessments had not changed substantially in recent months, with agencies still believing Iran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program in earnest, seemingly at odds with Israel’s on-the-ground appraisal.
But Trump dismissed those conclusions, claiming Iran was “very close to having” a weapon.
The move marks a dramatic escalation in the decades-long standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and potentially pulls the U.S. into a broader regional conflict.
Trump has warned that if Iran retaliates, “Future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”
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