Capitol Hill: Israeli plan to attack Iran dictated Trump’s decision on strikes

Senior lawmakers in both parties said that the Trump administration’s decision to launch bombing and missile strikes across Iran this weekend was largely dictated by Israel’s plan to attack Iran with or without U.S. support, ‘The Hill’ reports.

Senior administration officials told Republican and Democratic lawmakers at a classified briefing on Capitol Hill that the Israeli plan to strike Iran pushed the United States to take preemptive action to protect U.S. troops stationed at bases throughout the Middle East, whom the Pentagon believed would have been targeted by retaliatory strikes.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who serves as vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee attended the briefing, said the decision to initiate a massive military assault on another country because of pressure from a U.S. ally put the nation in “uncharted” territory.

Warner said he supports Israel, but he questioned the decision to put American lives at risk when an imminent threat may be directed at an ally instead of the United States itself.

Warner argued if the military operation against Iran “was being driven by imminent security threats from Iran against America, I think we would have had better planning.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), speaking to reporters after the briefing, said that President Trump faced a tough call on ordering strikes against Iran when it became clear that Israel would launch military operations, even without U.S. support, which would have put U.S. troops in the region in danger.

“Because Israel was determined to act with or without the U.S., our commander in chief and the administration and the officials [in the Cabinet] had a very difficult decision to make. They had to evaluate the threats to the U.S., to our troops, to our installations, to our assets in the region in beyond,” Johnson said.

John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser, criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of muddling the administration’s message regarding the goals of the weekend’s U.S. strikes against Iran, ‘The Hill’ reports.

“Pete Hegseth needs to check with his boss on what the objective is,” Bolton told host Kate Bolduan on “CNN News Central.”

During a Monday morning press conference, Hegseth said the objectives of the military operation are to “destroy Iranian offensive missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure, and they will never have nuclear weapons.”

But in the wake of the initial U.S. and Israeli strikes Saturday, which resulted in the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a slew of other political and military leaders, Trump urged Iranians to seize control of their country from the Islamic Republic.

Pic.: publics