Trump kept diplomats in dark on Iran strikes - WSJ
President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in June without alerting US diplomats, leaving them unable to answer questions from foreign governments, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
Officials from Middle East countries pressed for answers after the strikes, but US embassies could only point to Trump’s public remarks, the Journal said, citing people involved in the talks.
The report said Trump has sidelined the National Security Council, slashed staff to under 150, and merged key roles. Secretary of State Marco Rubio now also serves as national security adviser.
“It is a top-down approach,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Journal. “We don’t really care if your feelings are hurt. We just need to get a job done.”
“In many respects, the national security process has ceased to exist,” said David Rothkopf, a historian of the NSC. Trump, he added, effectively is the national-security system—“the State Department and the Joint Chiefs and the NSC all rolled into one.”
Some aides say the system cuts leaks and speeds decisions. Others warn it leads to confusion and leaves officials guessing what Trump wants.
Senior Iranian officials have admitted in private meetings that Washington ignored at least 15 messages from Iran seeking renewed negotiations, Iran International has learned, as Tehran scrambles to head off the reimposition of UN sanctions.
Deputy foreign minister for political affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi told editors of Iranian print and online media in a private meeting Saturday that the White House had disregarded Tehran’s messages about resuming negotiations, according to information obtained by Iran International.
In a similar session last week, deputy foreign minister for legal affairs Kazem Gharibabadi revealed that Iran had sent messages to Washington 15 times through different channels but had received no reply.
Britain, France and Germany on Thursday triggered a 30-day process - the so-called 'snapback' mechanism - to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program in a formal letter sent to the UN Security Council.
Resumption of talks with the US is one of the three preconditions set by the Europeans for delaying the snapback of UN sanctions on Iran.
During previous talks with the US brokered by Oman, Iran refused to accept limits on its uranium enrichment program. US special envoy Steve Witkoff presented proposals after several rounds, but they were all rejected as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei insisted that enrichment inside Iran was a red line.
The Trump administration had set a 60-day deadline to secure a nuclear agreement with Iran. On day 61 or June 13, with four rounds of negotiations completed and a fifth looming, Israel launched a surprise military attack on Iran.
After the conflict, Washington declared that a deal was possible only if Iran agreed to “zero enrichment” on its soil, a condition Iranian officials continue to reject.
US in no rush for talks
President Trump told reporters in mid-July that the urgency to engage with Iran had vanished after US strikes.
“They would like to talk. I’m in no rush to talk because we obliterated their site,” Trump told reporters, implying he was content to let pressure build.
Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said on August 12 that Iran was ready for direct talks with the US “under the right conditions” to preserve mutual interests, but his remarks were quickly dismissed by Khamenei.
“Those who say, ‘Why don’t you negotiate directly with the United States and solve the issues,’ are superficial; because the reality is different," Khamenei said during a meeting with his supporters in Tehran.
"Given America’s true objective in its hostility toward Iran, these issues are unsolvable."
Israel must prepare for another round of confrontation with Iran and ensure that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will be killed in the next campaign, former defense minister Yoav Gallant said on Saturday, over two months after the archenemies' 12-day war.
“Although Khamenei was not eliminated in this round, his elimination must be part of any plan of the State of Israel if a campaign against us is launched,” Gallant said in an interview with Israeli Channel 12's Meet the Press.
He added that Iran will rebuild some of its strength, particularly its ballistic missile arsenal, and that Israel must be ready for a different war.
Israel launched a 12-day air campaign against Iran in June, striking nuclear facilities and killing senior military officials and scientists. The Israeli military said the operation crippled much of Iran’s air defense system and damaged its missile capabilities.
“The main thing that is not talked about is that the Iranians do not understand how we penetrated them in terms of intelligence, and they do not know what we know,” said Gallant.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump both mooted killing Khamenei at the height of the conflict and Trump hinted at favoring Iranian regime change.
"It’s not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social in late June.
“Today our enemy, the one standing against us — the Zionist regime — is the most despised government in the world,” said Khamenei in a speech last week.
Khamenei added that enemies had underestimated Iran’s resilience and wrongly believed attacks would separate the people from the state.
"Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. That's why we as the E3 have triggered the snapback mechanism," said German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Saturday.
The three European countries will use the next 30 days to seek a negotiated solution, he said, according to a post on X by the German foreign ministry.
"Otherwise, UN sanctions will come back into force. The ball is now in Iran's court."
Israel managed to pinpoint the location of Iran’s top authorities during June’s 12-day war by hacking the mobile phones carried by their bodyguards, The New York Times reported Saturday, citing Iranian and Israeli officials.
“We know senior officials and commanders did not carry phones, but their interlocutors, security guards and drivers had phones, they did not take precautions seriously and this is how most of them were traced,” the report said citing Iran's former deputy vice-president Sasan Karimi.
An Israeli defense official told the paper: “Using so many bodyguards is a weakness that we imposed on them, and we were able to take advantage of that.”
The tactic enabled Israeli warplanes on June 16 to strike a bunker in western Tehran where President Masoud Pezeshkian, the heads of the judiciary and intelligence ministry, and senior commanders were holding an emergency security meeting, the report added.
Earlier this month, the chief of staff to Iran's president said Israel’s attack on a Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) meeting on June 16 was a targeted attempt to kill Masoud Pezeshkian, who escaped with a minor injury.
Israel targeted the building’s entrances and exit points with six bombs to block escape routes and cut off airflow, Revolutionary Guards affiliated Fars News reported last month.
None of the leaders were killed, but several guards died outside, according to The Times.
Bodyguards had long been excluded from strict phone bans imposed on top commanders, even after earlier assassinations of nuclear scientists and military figures, The New York Times reported.
Lapse now addressed
That lapse has since been addressed, with guards now restricted to carrying only walkie-talkies, the report said.
The strikes formed part of a broader Israeli campaign that killed at least 30 senior commanders and more than a dozen nuclear scientists during the war’s first week.
Iranian officials later said dozens of suspects from the military and government had been arrested or placed under house arrest on suspicion of spying for Israel.
President Pezeshkian, who was lightly injured in the attack, later told clerics: “There was only one hole, and we saw there was air coming and we said, we won’t suffocate. Life hinges on one second.”
He added that if the leadership had been killed, “people would have lost hope.”
Yemen’s Houthi rebels confirmed on Saturday that their prime minister, Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi, and several ministers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a building in the capital, Sanaa.
The announcement was made by Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the group’s Supreme Political Council.
According to the Houthis, al-Rahawi and his colleagues were holding a cabinet meeting when the strike took place.
Al-Rahawi had served as prime minister since 2024, though his role was seen largely as administrative. The council announced that Mohamed Ahmad Moftah has been appointed as acting prime minister.
The Israeli military said on Friday that its air force carried out a broad operation against Houthi positions in Sanaa, targeting senior political and military leaders.
Slain Houthi Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahawi
Israel’s Channel 12 reported the strike likely killed the entire Houthi cabinet, including al-Rahawi and up to 12 ministers.
The fresh airstrikes came after the Israeli military concluded that the Houthis had used cluster munitions in one of their ballistic missile attacks on the Jewish State.
Houthis ready to fight back
After confirming the deaths of the group’s senior officials, the Houthi defense minister announced that the Houthis are ready to confront Israel.
The Houthis have been launching attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait, and the Gulf of Aden since the outbreak of the Gaza war. Their operations, which have also extended into the Indian Ocean, have repeatedly disrupted maritime security.
The group has also launched missiles and drones toward Israel, framing its attacks as support for Palestinians. While the United States says it recently secured a halt to Houthi strikes on American vessels, the Houthis have said the truce does not apply to Israel and vowed to continue their attacks.
