Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump began planning for a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear program after a meeting in February 2025, and developed an elaborate public deception program, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

During the February meeting, their first under Trump’s second term, Netanyahu presented Trump with four options on what an attack on Iran could look like, according to the report. The four scenarios were an exclusively Israeli attack, an attack led by Israel with minimal US help, full collaboration, and a US-led assault.

While Trump chose to give nuclear diplomacy an opportunity, the intelligence-sharing and preparations for an attack continued, per the report. “The thinking was, if talks fail, we are ready to go,” said one person familiar with the details.

As they moved closer to a strike, the two leaders sought to lull Iran into complacency.

On June 12, Trump said that he preferred a negotiated solution to a military strike. Israeli officials leaked word that top Netanyahu adviser Ron Dermer and Mossad director David Barnea would be meeting senior White House envoy Steve Witkoff in the near future, and a round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran was scheduled for June 15.

Both countries also leaked........

© The Times of Israel