Saudi Arabia privately pushed Trump to strike Iran in weeks before war, warning Iran was strengthening - report

The decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to carry out military strikes on Iran came following several weeks in which both Israel and Saudi Arabia lobbied for action, the Washington Post reported. 

While the Israeli pressure on Trump was widely known, being reported in both the U.S. and Israeli press, the lobbying by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was conducted discreetly via private phone calls, in opposition to public statements by officials of the Saudi kingdom. 

The Post cited “four people familiar with the matter” for its story, who stated that bin Salman made “multiple private phone calls to Trump” over the past month, warning that Iran would end up strengthened if the U.S. did not enforce its threats and deadlines. 

While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic publicly smoothed over their differences in recent years, after rapprochement and the restoration of diplomatic ties in 2023, behind the scenes, Saudi Arabia has continued to view Iran as its primary regional rival. 

According to the Washington Post report, bin Salman’s phone calls to Trump were reinforced by meetings between his brother, Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, and his U.S. counterparts in January, during which he also warned of the consequences of not striking. 

The public stance by Saudi Arabia against military action was largely an attempt to prevent an Iranian retaliatory strike on Saudi oil infrastructure, as happened in 2019 in the attacks on the Abqaiq and Khurais oil refineries. 

That strategy appears to have worked for the kingdom, with only a limited attack targeting the capital city of Riyadh occurring on Saturday, as part of a broad series of attacks on Gulf countries. The Saudi government reported that this attack was repelled, and Saudi media reported no casualties. 

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the joint Israeli-U.S. strikes, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were moved forward based on intelligence indicating Khamenei was engaged in meetings with key aides on Saturday morning. 

According to the WSJ, the U.S. and Israel had been waiting for an opportunity when Khamenei and other senior officials would be gathered in close proximity in order to carry out a “decapitation” attack on the regime. 

That opportunity came on Saturday morning, when Israeli intelligence discovered that three such high-profile meetings would be taking place simultaneously. Recognizing the rare opportunity, the two allies immediately took action, with Israel Air Force jets dropping 30 bombs on Khamenei's compound in Tehran. 

Along with Khamenei, Israel claimed to have killed several other senior officials, including Ali Shamkhani, a senior security advisor to Khamenei; Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; and Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh. 

Their deaths were later confirmed by the Iranian regime. 

Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told the WSJ that the strikes were in contrast to those that launched Operation Rising Lion last June, which were carried out under "cover of darkness.” 

“Everybody waited for a target at midnight, when there is cover of darkness,” Yadlin told the WSJ. Carrying out the attack during daylight hours “was a tactical surprise,” he added. 

Both the U.S. and Israel have indicated that the strikes against the Iranian regime would continue “as long as necessary.”