Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alerted President Donald Trump in a Feb. 23 phone call that Iran's supreme leader and his top advisers were expected to meet together in Tehran days later.
That crucial news helped set in motion the joint U.S.-Israeli military strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Axios reported Tuesday.
Netanyahu told Trump they could all be killed in a single devastating airstrike, three sources briefed on the discussion told Axios.
Trump had been leaning toward striking Iran before learning the new intelligence about Khamenei. What he hadn't decided was when — until Netanyahu called.
The Feb. 23 call was part of months of intensive coordination between the leaders, who met twice and spoke by phone 15 times in the two months leading to the conflict, according to Axios, citing U.S. and Israeli officials.
U.S. and Israeli officials had considered launching the strike about a week earlier but delayed for intelligence and operational reasons, including poor weather.
At Trump's direction, the CIA conducted an initial review that confirmed the information about Khamenei gathered by Israeli military intelligence.
By Feb. 26, the CIA had fully confirmed that the Iranian leader and his advisers would be together on Feb. 28, according to Axios.
Axios reported that on Feb. 26, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, called from Geneva after talks with Iranian officials and concluded diplomacy was unlikely to succeed.
"If you decide you want to do diplomacy, we will push and fight to get a deal. But these guys showed us they weren't willing to make the deal you will be satisfied with," a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the call said Trump was told, according to Axios.
Trump concluded that the intelligence was credible and diplomacy had failed. At 3:38 p.m. EST, Trump gave the order to proceed, and 11 hours later, bombs fell on Tehran, Khamenei was killed, and the conflict began.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio later defended the timing of the operation.
"This weekend presented a unique opportunity to take joint action against this threat," Rubio told reporters Monday on Capitol Hill. "We wanted this to have maximum success."
Rubio also said the strike would likely have occurred regardless of the specific intelligence.
Under criticism that the U.S. had been pulled into the conflict by Israel, Rubio said the operation "had to happen anyway," adding it was simply "a question of timing."
Trump also rejected the suggestion that Netanyahu drove the decision.
"We were having negotiations with these lunatics and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that. If anything, I might have forced Israel's hand," Trump said Tuesday.
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