'Call to start war was later than leaked narratives'

In recent days and weeks, sources have indicated to The Jerusalem Post that the final decision to go to war with Iran and the process leading to that decision culminated much later than some of the leaked narratives that have been flooding the headlines of late.

- By YONAH JEREMY BOB

A PLUME of smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran on Saturday. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

(Majid Saeedi Getty Images)

If the new conventional narrative - that some top US officials, and especially certain top Israeli political figures, have been trying to frame lately - portrays a brilliant, consistent, clear, and longstanding plan to go to war, the Post understands that much of this is revisionist history, aimed at simplifying what was actually an extraordinarily uncertain period marked by a complex series of ups and downs.

By Thursday after the Iranian offer in the third round of negotiations with the US had fallen short of President Donald Trump's minimum redlines, the US president signed off on plans for a joint US-Israeli attack.

Some of the decisions regarding the exact timing of the attack - Friday night versus Saturday morning - also appear to have been impacted by late-developing intelligence, which located where Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be meeting with other top Iranian security officials.

But generally speaking, the key turning point came on Thursday afternoon/evening, with multiple hints, including the delay and eventual cancellation of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's previously announced trip to Israel and other contrary points of misdirection, such as continued meetings with Omani officials about a potential fourth round of negotiations later this week.

New narratives pretending that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump had already set the plan of a joint attack as a certainty weeks ago or longer betray the complex picture of what went on before that point.