Why Attack Iran Now? Key Trump Aides Blame Iran’s ‘Games, Tricks and Stall Tactics’

After weeks of threatening military action against Iran, President Donald Trump’s decision to follow through on Saturday was driven in part by his view that negotiations with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program had become a fruitless exercise, according to three senior Trump administration officials. He also feared Iran might strike first against the armada of American forces he had ordered to amass in the region, the officials said.

Trump had sent Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, to meet with Iranian officials in Geneva to try to hammer out a nuclear deal. Trump came to believe Iran was using “games, tricks, and stall tactics,” after Kushner described what had happened during the most recent round of talks on Thursday, one of the officials said. Trump did not believe the Iranians were serious about giving up its decades-long ambition to develop a nuclear weapon and seemed to be misrepresenting the extent of its enrichment capabilities. 

Trump was also frustrated that Iran flat out refused to discuss two topics—its continued construction of ballistic missiles and its support for violent proxy forces in the Middle East, according to the officials.

Trump had recently received a U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran intended to use its ballistic missile arsenal “potentially preemptively” against American forces amassing in the region, a second administration official said. That, combined with the conclusion that diplomacy was futile, convinced Trump to coordinate with Israeli forces in the large-scale attack early Saturday morning.  

“The president decided he was not going to sit back and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks from conventional missiles,” the official said.

The explanations from Administration officials come as critics have accused Trump of exaggerating the imminent threat from Iran and being in search of an excuse to attack the country and pursue regime change. In January, during a deadly crackdown on dissent inside the country, Trump told Iranian protestors “help is in the way.”

The military campaign that the Pentagon has dubbed Operation Epic Fury killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of others. The operation was intended to overturn the theocratic leadership of the country, debilitate Iran’s ballistic missile production and launch capabilities, and shut down the country’s ability to restart enrichment of fissile material that could be used to build a nuclear bomb. 

Since the U.S. and Israeli attacks began, Iran’s response has included missiles that hit an airport in Kuwait and hotels in Abu Dhabi, as well as targeting U.S. bases in the region, according to administration officials.

The wave of attacks on Saturday came eight months after the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, which Trump said at the time had destroyed Iran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon. But Trump officials became convinced that Iran was trying to rebuild those facilities.

As the negotiations advanced, Kushner and Witkoff suspected Iran was downplaying its existing ability to enrich uranium and build advanced centrifuges, according to the two officials. During one negotiation session, Iranian officials handed Kushner and Witkoff a seven-page plan for a civil nuclear program which the Iranians would not allow to leave that room. Kushner and Witkoff believed the proposal would have allowed Iran to enrich uranium at levels that were five times higher than had been allowed under the nuclear deal Iran struck during the Obama Administration. Trump had ridiculed that deal as insufficient and ended it in his first term.

Kushner and Witkoff also became convinced that an enrichment facility Iran said was for medical and agricultural uses was instead being used to stockpile more fissile material that could later be used to build a nuclear bomb, according to administration officials, who noted that Iran refused a U.S. offer of free nuclear fuel as part of the deal. This all raised concerns that Iran wasn’t being sincere in its efforts to reach an agreement that to end its ability to develop a nuclear weapon, the officials said. Those concerns were relayed to Trump over the last few weeks.

Trump gave the order for the attack early Saturday morning from his club in Palm Beach, Florida. 

Amid the wave of attacks, some targets inside Iran were destroyed by one-way attack drones, which are also sometimes referred to as kamikaze drones. It was the first time such drones were used by the U.S. in combat. Those self-destructing drones were modeled after Iran’s Shahed drones that Russia has used to kill Ukrainian forces on the battlefield. A statement released by U.S. Central Command on Saturday said those low-cost drones “are now delivering American-made retribution.”