Axios learns of Trump-Netanyahu call after which they decided to attack Iran

It has emerged that US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a phone call on 23 February after which they decided to launch an operation against Iran on Saturday 28 February.

According to three Axios sources, Netanyahu then told Trump that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his top advisers were set to meet at a single location in Tehran on Saturday morning. This meant the US and Israel had an opportunity to wipe out Iran's top leadership in one strike.

The CIA later verified the intelligence provided by Netanyahu.

The US and Israel considered striking a week earlier than Saturday but postponed it for intelligence and operational reasons, including unfavourable weather conditions.

US officials stated that Trump had made a "deliberate decision" not to focus on Iran in the State of the Union address to Congress so as not to alarm the ayatollah and force him into hiding before it would be possible to strike.

On the same day, the US president's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff called from Geneva after several hours of talks with the Iranians and reported that diplomacy with Tehran had led nowhere.

Trump was then convinced of the reliability of the intelligence and the failure of diplomatic efforts, so at 15:38 Eastern Time on Friday, he gave the final order to attack.

It was previously reported that some Axios sources suggested the talks were a way to distract Iran from the US military build-up in the region. Other sources claim the talks were genuine but failed.

Witkoff stated that during the talks, Iranian representatives had boasted about their ability to produce eleven nuclear bombs.