Trump Suggests Israel Would 'Lead' Possible Attack On Iran

At a moment the whole world is closely following Trump's tariff back-and-forth and the rapid impact on global markets, President Trump has again threatened the possibility of military action against Iran.

"If it requires military, we’re going to have military," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, responding to a question on whether US would attack if a nuclear deal isn't reached with the Iranians.

This has also raised uncomfortable questions on Israel's outsized influence on American foreign policy. Recall that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back in September 2002 testified before Congress that there was 'no question' Saddam Hussein was working on nuclear weapons and other WMD.

This begs the obvious question of whether anyone should be listening to him now on the question of Iran and its nuclear program.

Trump addressed this in adding to his Oval comments: "Israel will obviously be very much involved in that — it’ll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do."

However, this appears a clear admission that Israel would indeed 'lead' any such attack. Israel has for years threatened preemptive strikes on the Islamic Republic if it's believed Tehran is close to producing a nuclear warhead.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian restated in Wednesday comments, "We are not after a nuclear bomb," and emphasized: "You have verified it 100 times. Do it 1,000 times again."

The US intelligence community at this moment actually agrees. "The IC [Intelligence Community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003," Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March.

Netanyahu also exercised significant influence over US policy during Trump's first term in office, as The Associated Press reviews:

With Netanyahu’s strong encouragement, Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program. That deal, negotiated by the Obama administration, put curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. It was denigrated by Netanyahu because he said it did not go far enough to contain Iran or address Iran’s support for regional militant groups.

Netanyahu has long maintained that military pressure was the best way to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Israel struck Iran last year in the countries’ first direct conflict ever. But it did not target Iran’s nuclear facilities, something Israel would likely need U.S. military assistance to do in order to strike targets buried deep underground.

Still, the White House appears open to achieving a new deal that everyone can live with. 'Indirect' talks between Tehran and Washington are scheduled for this Saturday in Oman.

Netanyahu after meeting with Trump this week actually floated an ultra-provocative plan for Iran to 'blow up' its own nuclear facilities under US supervision, if it hopes to get sanctions dropped and end its international isolation (akin to the 'Libya model' - which didn't work out too well for Gaddafi).