Netanyahu, Trump discussed Khamenei 'decapitation strike' 48 hours before Iran war: Report The US President had earlier said publicly that the decision to strike was his aloneReutersLess than 48 hours before the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone to President Donald Trump about the reasons for launching the kind of complex, far-off war the American leader once had campaigned against. Those included a murder-for-hire plot allegedly orchestrated by Iran in 2024, when Trump was a candidate. Trump could make history by helping eliminate an Iranian leadership long reviled by the West and by many Iranians, Netanyahu argued. Two events pushed Trump toward attacking Iran again, according to several U.S. and Israeli officials and diplomats. The possibility of regime change was one of Netanyahu's arguments in the call shortly before Trump gave final orders to attack Iran, said the people briefed on it.

Source: The Telegraph March 23, 2026 18:42 UTC