Most detailed account of February 28 US-Israeli strikes on Iran: The call, intel, decision

A “decapitation strike” plan, a crucial meet 48-hour prior, and an operation meant to avenge efforts to assassinate Donald Trump were some of the key driving elements of the February 28 US-Israeli strikes on Iran that continues to disrupt not just the Gulf region but areas beyond also.

Less than 48 hours before the US-Israeli strike on Iran were first reported, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reportedly held a phone call with President Donald Trump to explain the rationale behind launching the kind of complex, distant war the American leader had once campaigned against. Track latest updates on US-Iran war here

Both Trump and Netanyahu were aware from intelligence briefings earlier that week that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his senior aides were expected to gather at his compound in Tehran, leaving them exposed to a “decapitation strike” – an attack targeting a country’s top leadership, frequently used by Israel but historically less so by the United States.

However, updated intelligence indicated that the meeting had been moved up to Saturday morning from Saturday night, Reuters reported, citing three individuals briefed on the call. The call has not been previously reported.

The Justice Department has accused a Pakistani man of trying to recruit individuals in the United States for the plan, intended as retaliation for Washington’s killing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ top commander, Qassem Soleimani in January 2020.

By the time the call took place, Trump had already approved the concept of a US military operation against Iran but had not yet determined the timing or conditions under which the United States would participate, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of internal discussions.

For weeks, the US military had been building up its presence in the region, leading many within the administration to believe it was only a matter of time before the president decided to proceed. One potential date just days earlier had been abandoned due to poor weather.

Netanyahu argued that Trump could make history by helping eliminate an Iranian leadership long despised by the West and by many Iranians, the report mentioned, adding that he suggested that Iranians might even rise up, overthrowing a theocratic system that had ruled the country since 1979 and been a major source of global terrorism and instability ever since.

The first bombs were dropped on February 28, Saturday, morning. That evening, Trump announced that Khamenei was dead.

In response to a request for comment, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly did not directly address the phone call between Trump and Netanyahu but told Reuters the military operation was intended to “destroy the Iranian regime’s ballistic missile and production capacity, annihilate the Iranian regime’s Navy, end their ability to arm proxies, and guarantee that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.”

Neither Netanyahu’s office nor Iran’s UN representative responded to requests for comment.

Trump has also publicly stated that the decision to strike was his alone.

The report, based on officials and individuals close to both leaders who largely spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity of internal deliberations, does not indicate that Netanyahu forced Trump into war. However, it shows that the Israeli leader was a convincing advocate and that his framing of the decision – including the opportunity to eliminate an Iranian leader who allegedly oversaw efforts to kill Trump – resonated with the president.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth in early March suggested that revenge was at least one motivation for the operation, telling reporters, “Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh.”

But as negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program failed to yield an agreement last spring, Trump began considering a strike, according to the three individuals familiar with White House deliberations.

The first attack happened in June, when Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facilities and missile sites, killing several Iranian leaders. US later joined the operation with strikes on three critical Iranian nuclear facilities – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow – with bunker buster bombs, and when the joint campaign concluded after 12 days, Trump publicly celebrated its success, saying the US had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Months later, discussions resumed between the US and Israel regarding a second aerial campaign aimed at additional missile facilities and preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. All this while US also showed interest in resuming talks with Iran.

Israel also sought to kill Khamenei, a long-standing geopolitical adversary who had repeatedly launched missiles at Israel and supported heavily armed proxy forces surrounding the country. These included the Hamas militant group that carried out the surprise October 7, 2023 attack from Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israeli officials began planning their attack under the assumption they would act alone, defense minister Israel Katz told Israel’s N12 News on March 5.

During a December visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Netanyahu told Trump he was not fully satisfied with the results of the June joint operation, according to two people familiar with their relationship, who spoke anonymously.

Trump reportedly displayed openness to another bombing campaign. But he also wanted to attempt another round of diplomatic talks, the sources added.

A US operation on January 3 to capture Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas – which resulted in no American casualties while removing a long-standing US adversary – demonstrated that ambitious military actions could be executed with minimal collateral impact on US forces.

Later that month, large-scale anti-government protests erupted in Iran, prompting what was reported to be a harsh crackdown by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that killed thousands. Trump pledged to support the protesters but took little immediate public action.

Privately, however, cooperation intensified between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and the US military’s Middle East command, CENTCOM, with joint planning conducted during secret meetings, according to two Israeli officials speaking anonymously.

Shortly thereafter, during Netanyahu’s February visit to Washington, he briefed Trump on Iran’s expanding ballistic missile program, highlighting specific sites of concern. He also outlined the risks posed by the programme, including the possibility that Iran could eventually gain the capability to strike the US homeland, according to three people familiar with the private discussions.

The White House did not respond to questions about Trump’s December and February meetings with Netanyahu.

Trump received briefings from Pentagon and intelligence officials outlining the potential perks of a successful strike, including the destruction of Iran’s missile programme, according to two people familiar with those briefings.

Before the Netanyahu-Trump phone call, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a small group of senior Congressional leaders on February 24 that Israel was likely to attack Iran regardless of US involvement, and that Iran would likely retaliate against US targets, three people briefed on the meeting revealed.

Underlying Rubio’s warning was an assessment by US intelligence officials that such an attack would trigger counterstrikes against American diplomatic and military facilities as well as US Gulf allies, according to three sources familiar with intelligence reports.

Trump was also briefed that there was a possibility, even if small, that eliminating Iran’s top leadership could result in a government in Tehran more willing to negotiate with Washington, according to two additional people familiar with Rubio’s briefing.

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The prospect of regime change was one of Netanyahu’s arguments during the call shortly before Trump issued final orders for the attack, according to those briefed on the discussion.

However, that view was not shared by the Central Intelligence Agency, which had assessed in the weeks prior that Khamenei would likely be succeeded by an internal hardliner if he were killed, as Reuters previously reported.

The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Following Khamenei’s death, Trump repeatedly called for an uprising. With the war now in its fourth week and the region engulfed in conflict, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards continue to patrol the streets while millions of Iranians remain inside their homes.

Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, regarded as even more strongly anti-American than his father, has been named Iran’s new supreme leader.