President Donald Trump denied on Tuesday that Israel was responsible for dragging the United States into a brewing conflict with Iran.
Trump said during an impromptu press conference in the Oval Office with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that Iran was likely to attack first and that, if anything, the U.S. forced Israel into the conflict.
“They were going to attack if we didn’t do it,” the president said. “They were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that. I think they were going to attack first, and I didn’t want that to happen. So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready, and we were ready, and we’ve had a very, very powerful impact.”
The day prior, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the Capitol that Trump ordered strikes on Iranian targets over the weekend after determining “there was going to be an Israeli action” and that it “would precipitate an attack against American forces” by Iran in retaliation.
“They were getting ready to attack Israel,” Trump said. “They were getting ready to attack others. You’re seeing that right now. A lot of those missiles that are hitting in those are stationary, those were aimed there for a long period of time at these other countries.”
Later in his remarks, Trump expressed surprise that Iran had retaliated with strikes against other Gulf States, not just American and Israeli targets.
TRUMP SAYS IRAN CONFLICT WILL ‘CONTINUE’ TO HONOR FOUR AMERICANS KILLED IN ACTION
“They’ll hit people that were actually at least somewhat friendly, and they had no problems with it, also hitting only civilian places,” he continued. “We’re hitting them where it is much more appropriate. We’re hitting them very hard, and the big scale hitting goes now.”
Trump’s comments can be seen in full below.
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