White House appears to confirm Netanyahu call about Khamenei meeting was key in strike that started war

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appears to confirm an Axios report that US President Donald Trump moved to strike Iran after a February 23 phone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during which the premier informed him that Israel had intelligence indicating that supreme leader Ali Khamenei would be holding a meeting with other top senior Iranian officials on February 28.

Leavitt says in a press briefing that the call was “important with respect to the timeline” of the US strikes in Iran, while insisting that the president was set on attacking Iran regardless.

Asked about polling suggesting that the American public largely doesn’t support the war with Iran, Leavitt dismisses the notion outright.

“The president is smart enough to read past many of the fake news headlines produced by people in this room that his action was unjustifiable,” Leavitt says. “This is a rogue terrorist regime that has been threatening the United States, our allies and our people for 47 years, and the American people are smart enough to know that.”

Leavitt adds that the US is aware and monitoring reports that Khamenei’s son Mojtaba has been tapped to succeed his father.

Indicating an extended US presence in Iran, Leavitt says Trump and his aides are discussing what role the US could have inside the country after the war.