As Israel attacks Iran, Trump officials say no US military support

US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February. Photo / AFP

Israel launched military strikes on Iran today, potentially plunging the Middle East into a new round of violence and signalling the likely end for now of United States President Donald Trump’s hopes for a negotiated peace deal to halt Tehran’s nuclear development.

In a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove” what he called a “clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival”.

Iran, he said, could “produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year. It could be a few months.”

Netanyahu said that Israeli aircraft had “struck at the heart” of Iran’s nuclear enrichment and “nuclear weaponisation” programmes, including Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.

“We targeted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb. We also struck at the heart of Iran’s ballistic missile programme.”

Iranian media reported that Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been killed, along with Fereydoun Abbasi, the former head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organisation.

Unconfirmed reports said that those targeted included Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri and his deputy and other senior military officials.

Airstrikes were reported in several cities, including Tehran, where a number of residential buildings were said to have been hit, including in a neighbourhood said to house senior military officials. Video posted on media sites showed structures destroyed and in flames.

In a statement, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Israeli strikes “unilateral action” and said the US was “not involved”.

He said the Trump Administration’s “top priority is protecting American forces in the region”.

Israel had “advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defence”, Rubio said.

“President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel.”

Israeli officials said Netanyahu signed orders authorising the attack on Monday local time. He spoke by phone to Trump that same day.

Should Iran retaliate, it was not immediately clear whether the US would assist Israel’s defence, including shooting down Iranian drones and missiles as it did twice last year.

“That’s up to the President,” said a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing operation.

The attack came hours after Trump suggested today that an Israeli strike was not imminent.

He held out hope that Washington’s negotiations with Iran, while deadlocked, could offer a peaceful way out of the crisis. US and Iranian diplomats had been scheduled to hold a sixth round of talks on Monday (NZT) in Oman.

A US defence official said a significant, multiday Israeli attack is likely to provoke a significant Iranian response that Israel will seek Washington’s help to counter.

Without US support - deep-penetrating bombs and refuelling for Israeli jets, in particular - an Israeli attack is likely to do limited damage to Iran’s nuclear sites, some of which are buried deep underground, former officials and analysts say.

The Israeli action laid bare a divide between the US and the Netanyahu government over intelligence on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The two allies share virtually all intelligence on the subject, but often interpret it in different ways, current and former US officials said.

US officials said that American spy agencies in recent weeks have not changed a long-standing assessment that Iran, despite its advanced uranium enrichment work, has not moved to transform that effort into an actual nuclear device.

Top Israeli officials, who often take a more alarmist view of a nuclear programme they believe will someday be aimed at their country, today cited intelligence on a secret Iranian programme that they said could produce a weapon in months or, at most, a year.

Tehran has threatened to respond to an Israeli attack with counter-strikes targeting both Israel as well as US forces and facilities scattered throughout the Middle East.

The US had moved to shrink its presence in the region, with the State Department authorising the evacuation of some personnel in Iraq and the Pentagon green-lighting the departure of military family members across the region.

Trump had pinned his hopes of avoiding war on a diplomatic deal with Iran that would limit its nuclear activities in return for easing the harsh economic sanctions squeezing Iran’s economy.

As of today US special envoy Steve Witkoff planned to travel to Oman’s capital, Muscat, for a sixth round of talks with Iran, a person familiar with the matter said.

Both Israel and the Trump Administration have said that the only way to ensure Iran will never have a nuclear weapon is to dismantle or destroy its enrichment capabilities.

Iran denies it is seeking such a weapon and says it has the right, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to enrich low-grade uranium for civilian purposes.

The prospect of a fresh military confrontation in the Middle East had alarmed Maga advocates in and outside of Trump’s inner circle, many of whom rallied behind the President due to his anti-war message.

“A direct strike on Iran right now would disastrously split the Trump coalition,” warned Maga podcaster Jack Posobiec on X.

“Trump smartly ran against starting new wars, this is what the swing states voted for - the Midterms are not far and Congress’ majority is already razor-thin. America First!”

But advocates of military intervention, including News Corp chairman emeritus Rupert Murdoch and former Marvel Entertainment chairman Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, have tried in private phone calls with the President to push Trump towards backing a strike on Iran, said people familiar with the matter.

Netanyahu has been deeply sceptical that the negotiations will halt the nuclear threat from Iran.

He has also insisted that any new agreement with Iran eliminate its ballistic missile capabilities and support for regional proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.

That is something the US also seeks, but so far the US-Iran talks have focused only on eliminating its nuclear enrichment programme.

In exchange, Iran wants all sanctions against it lifted, but the Administration has said only those related to the nuclear issue would be affected.

The fallout from the Israeli attack could pose profound dangers to US military forces in the Middle East, including in Iraq, which neighbours Iran.

The State Department established a new Middle East task force today designed to be instrumental in the event of a mass evacuation of American personnel from the Middle East, said two US officials familiar with the matter.

The creation of the task force was an indication that the Trump Administration anticipated a potential major military escalation in the region that could threaten Americans.

The State Department has established similar task forces for seminal geopolitical events, including after the Taliban’s lightning takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, when thousands of US government officials and civilians were airlifted out of the region.

Witkoff, the White House envoy, warned Republican senators last week that Iran could respond to an Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities with unprecedented force, said a congressional aide familiar with the matter, confirming a report in Axios.

The Witkoff warning came in the form of a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill with Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican), Senator James Risch (Republican) and others.

Witkoff said that the US is concerned that Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities could break through Israel’s missile defence systems, resulting in significant casualties and damage to Israeli infrastructure, the aide said.

Yesterday, amid increasing reports that Israel was preparing to strike, Defence Minister Brigadier-General Aziz Nasirzadeh said that “in case of any conflict, the US must leave the region, because all its bases are within … our range and we will target all of them in the host countries regardless”.

Nasirzadeh expressed hope that the negotiations would succeed. “But if it does not come to an end and a conflict is imposed on us,” he said, “the casualties of the other party will definitely [be] much heavier than ours.”

In an attack last October in retaliation for an Iranian ballistic missile strike on Israel, the Israeli Air Force is believed to have significantly degraded Iran’s air defences and ballistic missile production sites.

Israel and its supporters have argued that the strike had opened a finite window to attack Iran’s nuclear sites with less risk for Israeli pilots.