Regional strikes: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country will heed Trump’s call not to repeat attacks on key Iranian energy sites like the South Pars field. Netanyahu said Israel acted alone in striking a facility linked to the gas field.
WASHINGTON — Israel coordinated its Wednesday strikes on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field with the US, a US official and a second source familiar with the matter tell The Times of Israel.
The source familiar with the matter says the US was aware of the attack, but did not take part in it.
An Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field was coordinated with the Trump administration in advance, according to three Israeli officials, despite President Trump’s initial assertion in a social media post that the United States “knew nothing about” it.
"The United States knew nothing about this particular attack,” Mr. Trump wrote in the social media post late Wednesday, saying that Israel had “violently lashed out.”
A day later, Mr. Trump appeared to have changed course.
Speaking to reporters Thursday at the White House, Mr. Trump implied that he had spoken about the strike ahead of time with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
“I told him don’t do that,” Mr. Trump said. He went on to say, “we’re independent. We get along great. It’s coordinated.”
I'm sure the real story is Israel said they were gonna do it, people in the Trump administration (whether or not Trump himself) said fine, go for it, and then suddenly they realized it was a bad idea.