Trump: Israel didn't force me to attack, I could have forced Israel to attack

2026-03-03 18:11
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2026-03-03 18:11
Israel did not force me to attack Iran, if anything, I forced it on Israel, said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House. He suggested that Iran wanted to attack the US first.


– We were negotiating with these madmen and in my opinion they wanted to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn't do this, they would attack first. I was deeply convinced of that, Trump said. “So, if anything, I could have forced Israel to act, but Israel was ready and we were ready,” he added.
A day earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Israel intended to attack Iran regardless of the US decision, so the United States decided to do the same.
Trump announced that the operation against Iran was going well, Iran was running out of missiles and had lost its air defenses. He also pointed to the attack on the council meeting that was supposed to elect a new leader of Iran.
– I think there was another blow to the new management today and it looks like this blow was also quite significant – he noted. (PAP)
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