Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed during an appearance on Fox News that Iran has tried to assassinate Donald Trump twice.
Netanyahu, who sought to justify Israel’s recent waves of missile strikes in Iran, asked host Bret Baier whether “these people who chant ‘death to America’” and “tried to assassinate President Trump twice” should “have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to your cities.”
Baier then pressed Netanyahu about his claim that Iran launched two assassination attempts.
“Through proxies, yes.” he said.
“Through, through their intel, yes, they want to kill him,” he added. “He’s enemy number one.”
In July, the Secret Service ramped up security for Trump in the weeks leading up to an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after learning of a plot to kill then-candidate Trump.
In September, the president claimed there were “big threats on my life by Iran.” The Department of Justice in November charged Farhad Shakeri with trying to conduct a murder-for-hire plot against Trump.
“He’s a decisive leader,” Netanyahu added. “He never took the path that others took to try to bargain with them in a way that is weak, giving them basically a pathway to enrich uranium, which means a pathway to the bomb, padding it with billions and billions of dollars.”
Netanyahu referenced Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement brokered by former president Barack Obama’s administration.
The Israeli prime minister said missile strikes that have killed top military officials and nuclear scientists have sought to curb Iran’s nuclear program and prevent the regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“I think we've sent them back quite a bit,” he said. “I think they were completely surprised. And, you know, surprise is the is a great element of success.”
Baier also asked Netanyahu when he told Trump he would launch the strikes on Iran.
“Obviously, we informed our American friends and President Trump, our great friend, ahead of time,” he said.
Administration officials have sought to distance the White House from the attacks, though Trump last week said last week — before the attacks — that a military operation against Iran would “blow” negotiations his administration has tried to broker over its nuclear program. Talks scheduled for Sunday were canceled.
The strikes — which preceded Iran conducting any strikes on Israel in kind — followed Trump’s deployment of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to lead negotiations with Iran.
Netanyahu said he would be open if Iran complied with Trump’s demands.
“I said it is worth it if they'll do what the president wants, and that is eliminate their enrichment capacity,” he said. “You know, that's a lot better than my having my country, my forces, my brave pilots, having to do it.”
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