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Home / Israel-Iran / Trump scrambles to claim credit for Israel’s Iran attack he publicly opposed
Israel‑Iran, Iran, Israel, Middle East

June 13, 2025

Trump scrambles to claim credit for Israel’s Iran attack he publicly opposed

“The U.S. started evacuating voluntarily non-essential personnel on Wednesday, barely 24 hours ahead of time, not enough time to really get people out of harm’s way,” said Rosemary Kelanic, the Middle East director for Defense Priorities, a think tank that pushes for a more restrained US foreign policy. “So the question for me is what did the president know and when did he know it?”

Senior Israeli officials also began to brief media that Trump had only pretended to oppose an Israeli attack and that they in fact had a “green light” for the attack. But Kelanic and others noted that Israel may be seeking a means to “entrap” the U.S. into a war.

In either case, it is doubtful that Israel could have prepared the attack in the past week without U.S. knowledge.

Read at the Guardian

Featuring

Rosemary
Kelanic

Director, Middle East Program

Defense Priorities

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