“Each of them had their fun,” he told the Axios website. “Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” Trump said.
But Israel concluded that only by striking Iran itself in response could it establish that Iran should not be granted future say over Israeli actions in Lebanon.
Israel could not accept a scenario in which Iranian strikes on Israel were considered a justifiable “tit-for-tat response” to Israeli strikes on Lebanon, a senior Israeli defence official told Reuters.
Before deciding to strike Iran, Netanyahu convened a meeting of top security and defence officials to discuss goals of a potential short-term escalation, according to the senior defence official and two other Israeli officials familiar with the deliberations.
One goal was to establish that any future US-Iran deal would not remove Israel’s right to attack Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and keep its troops deployed there, the senior defence official said.
Netanyahu had raised this consideration in weekend phone calls with Trump, the senior defence official said.
Netanyahu has not made any public comments or appearances since resuming attacks on Iran early on Monday. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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