Benjamin Netanyahu pitched the US-Israel military operation to kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a way for Donald Trump to avenge Iran’s efforts to kill him, according to a new report.
This is Tuesday’s article on events in the Middle East. Click here for Wednesday’s live updates.
On a previously-unreported call 48 hours before the joint strike that killed the Iranian Supreme Leader, Israel’s Prime Minister spoke to Mr Trump “about the reasons for launching the kind of complex, far-off war the American leader once had campaigned against”, per Reuters.
“Netanyahu, determined to move forward with an operation he had urged for decades, argued that there might never be a better chance to kill Khamenei and to avenge previous Iranian efforts to assassinate Trump”, the sources said, citing a murder-for-hire plot allegedly orchestrated by Iran against Mr Trump in 2024, when he was the Republican nominee for President.
Meanwhile, two so-called “zombie” ships have been seen passing through the Strait of Hormuz, as international pressure mounts for Iran to reopen the critical trade route.
The Strait, through which around a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes each year, has been blocked by Iran since the US and Israel launched their joint military operation on February 28.
After threatening to “obliterate” Iranian power plants if Iran did not unblock the Strait within 48 hours, Donald Trump announced the US will now cease any strikes on key infrastructure for at least five days.
Read on for more updates from Tuesday.
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