US President Donald Trump said late in the evening of 12 June Washington time (it’s morning in Kiev and Jerusalem) that he knew about the Israeli strikes on Iran in advance, but the United States was not involved.
“We are not surprised by this move, but the US had nothing to do with it, and I hope Iran will return to the negotiating table. We will help Israel defend itself,” the US leader said on Fox News television.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, and we hope to come back to the negotiating table. We’ll see. There are some people in the leadership who will not come back,” he said, indirectly referring to casualties among the leaders of Iran’s military and those involved in Tehran’s nuclear programme.
At 3 a.m. on 13 June, Israel launched an attack on Iran. Israeli jets struck uranium enrichment facilities in Natang and Fordow, missile bases in Kermanshah and Khorremabad, and Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz and other major Iranian cities were also under attack.
Iranian media reported that the Israeli strikes killed, among others, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Hosein Salami, Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri and physicist Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi.
On Sunday, June 15, Oman was to host the next round of talks between the US and Iran on Iran’s nuclear programme. The main issue at them remained uranium enrichment. The US insisted that Iran could develop its nuclear power only with imported enriched uranium. Iran claimed that enriching uranium on its own territory was its sovereign right.