The US was forced to deny direct advance knowledge of the attacks as early as Thursday
On Sunday, a senior US official was forced to deny claims from Iranian, Turkish, Jordanian and Iraqi officials that Iran gave three days’ notice of its attack on Israel. On Friday and Saturday last week, the US warned of an impending but nonspecific threat from Iran, and President Biden warned the Islamic Republic “Don’t.”
According to Reuters, the US official denied all claims that the US knew of the attack as early as Thursday, but the official did admit that Washington was in contact with Iran via Swiss middlemen.
“That is absolutely not true,” the official said. “They did not give a notification.” The official also denied that any specific details of targets, which would have allowed evacuation, were given.
The official added that Teheran sent the US a message after the attacks had begun, not before.
“We received a message from the Iranians as this was ongoing, through the Swiss. This was basically suggesting that they were finished after this, but it was still an ongoing attack. So that was (their) message to us.”
Russia at the UN today:
“What happened on the night of April 14 did not happen in a vacuum. Iran’s steps were a response to the shameful inaction of the UN and a response to Israel’s attack on Damascus. Syria is constantly being bombed by Israel.” pic.twitter.com/JkW5xdqgaE
— sarah (@sahouraxo) April 15, 2024
In the aftermath of Saturday’s missile and drone attack, Iranian, Turkish, Iraqi and Jordanian officials have all claimed that the US was given significant advance warning, including details of the targets and the intention simply to answer Israel’s April 1 attack on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, which killed two of the Revolutionary Guard’s top generals.
An Iranian source revealed that the Iranian regime informed the US government of the attack through multiple diplomatic channels, including Qatar, Turkey and Switzerland, giving details of the day of the attack and stating that it would be carried out in a way that would avoid provoking a response.
“Iran said the reaction would be a response to Israel’s attack on its embassy in Damascus and that it would not go beyond this,” said a Turkish diplomatic source.
“We were aware of the possibilities. The developments were not a surprise.”
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