Trump Pressured Tehran to Block an Iranian Strike After Israel’s Beirut Attack

An Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s Dahieh neighborhood yesterday triggered a 12-hour crisis with Washington and Tehran. According to a report by Ronen Bergman in Ynet, the strike was carried out under direct orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, despite sharp warnings from senior IDF and security officials. Military officials said the timing was especially volatile because the United States and Iran were then close to signing a broad agreement through Qatari mediation. The army recommended delaying the operation by two days, but the political leadership chose to go ahead and informed the Americans only minutes before the bombing, without prior consultation.

The report says Netanyahu was also responding to fierce domestic criticism over the weekend, especially from right-wing figures and media voices aligned with him, who accused him of losing influence over Donald Trump and failing to stop the emerging deal with Iran. Some officials believed the real goal of the strike was to derail the talks by provoking a severe Iranian response and a wider chain reaction.

After the strike, Israel went to the highest state of alert, expecting a ballistic missile barrage from Iran later that evening and preparing air defenses as well as possible retaliatory strikes on military and infrastructure targets in Iran. In Tehran, preparations for launching missiles reportedly began, and the region appeared to be sliding toward direct confrontation.

At that point, Trump launched what the report describes as an all-night rescue effort through Qatari intermediaries. He pressed Iran with threats and blamed it for any attack, while also offering additional economic concessions, including a quicker easing of pressure on its ports and the Strait of Hormuz. Israeli intelligence saw repeated delays in the planned launch, and Iran eventually told the mediators it was postponing the military response so Trump could still close the deal that day. The outcome was the opposite of what Netanyahu’s camp expected, the strike strengthened the negotiations, Trump became more determined to sign quickly, and the episode left Netanyahu exposed and publicly embarrassed, including after Trump reportedly leaked details of their call to the press.