The US and Israel drilled an American strike on Iran about a year ago, according to a report published early Sunday as the US military launched an unprecedented attack against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.
It was the first exercise that war-gamed an offensive strike against Iran’s nuclear program, ABC News reported, citing an unnamed source in Israel familiar with the matter.
The exercise was planned and executed during the Biden administration, “but we did not think a year ago that this would happen now,” the source said.
US President Donald Trump announced early Sunday that the US had carried out a “successful attack” on the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites in Iran, hours after he appeared to suggest that the matter of US involvement in Israel’s campaign against Iran’s nuclear program was as yet undecided.
The decision to directly involve the US in the war came after more than a week of strikes by Israel that damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities, decimated much of the country’s air defenses, and took out many of its military brass and top nuclear scientists. Iran, in retaliation, has launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and explosive drones at Israel.
In March, the Israeli Air Force held a joint exercise with the US Air Force, in what was seen as a warning message to Iran at the time amid speculation about a potential joint strike on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.
During the exercise, pilots “practiced operational coordination between the two militaries to enhance their ability to address various regional threats,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement at the time.
“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordo,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to the difficult-to-destroy underground site, which has been characterized as the most integral part of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
The US strike followed a statement from the White House on Thursday that said that Trump would decide whether to join Israel’s air campaign against Iran’s nuclear facilities within two weeks amid diplomatic efforts between Tehran and Washington, in what in retrospect seems to have been a deception.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the American president had approved attack plans on Iran the night prior, but held off on striking to give diplomacy a chance.
Trump denied the report, saying on Truth Social that the outlet has “No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!”
The ostensible vacillation came amid reports on differing intelligence assessments.
Despite Israel’s claim that Iran was potentially weeks away from producing a nuclear weapon before the IDF’s preemptive strikes against Tehran began last Friday, United States intelligence assessments found that the Islamic Republic was not actively pursuing the bomb and was still months or years away from obtaining one, according to a CNN report Tuesday.
The US Central Command, which oversees US military activities in the Middle East, presented a more urgent assessment than civilian intelligence bodies, the report added, saying before Israel’s surprise assault, Central Command believed Iran could more quickly produce a nuclear bomb if it decided to rush toward one, citing a source familiar with the discussions.
Iran had enough highly enriched uranium for several bombs, according to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, but had not made any moves toward weaponization.
Israel says its sweeping assault, which began June 13, on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program is necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.
Iran has retaliated by launching over 470 ballistic missiles and around 1,000 drones at Israel.
Iran’s missile attacks have killed 24 people and wounded thousands in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals. Some of the missiles that have not been intercepted by Israeli air defenses have hit apartment buildings, a university and a hospital, causing heavy damage.