The Israeli aggression against Iran launched only two days prior to the resumption of Iran-US talks on Iran’s nuclear programme was intended to sabotage the talks and clear the way for an Israeli attack on Iran. Six factors regarding Israel’s aggression are significant. First, it had the full backing of the Donald Trump’s administration.

Key Washington insiders plus Donald Trump himself publicly said they were told about the Israeli attack before it was launched. By all CNN and BBC accounts, the US President chaired a meeting two days prior to the Israeli attack at Camp David to clear the Tel Aviv attack plan with all his top advisors. Clearly, without the US clearance Israel could not have launched the attack since it was, as always, going to bank upon US military support.

Second, the US-Iran talks were going well. In March, the head of US Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had testified in a Congressional hearing that Iran was honoring its commitments made to the US and Ayatullah Ali Khamenai’s 2003 public edict that Iran will not make a nuclear bomb was being followed by the Iranian government. She had said Iran is at least three years away from making a nuclear bomb.

It was clear that Donald Trump with his key political and strategic partner, Israel, wanted to use force to attempt the impossible, i.e., complete destruction of Iran’s nuclear programme. In his last Administration Trump had torn apart the JCPOA agreement in 2018 that the Obama administration in a 5 plus 1 framework had negotiated with Iran. Hence Trump was determined, irrespective of US’s own intel conclusion that Iran must not have a nuclear programme. Evidently naïve in his understanding of Iran’s determination regarding retaining a programme, he wanted Iran to give up its nuclear programme the way Kazakhstan,........

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