Former President Donald Trump on Sunday shared that Israel was initially set to participate in the 2020 assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, but ultimately withdrew from the operation. Soleimani, a key figure in Iran’s military operations, was killed in Iraq by a U.S. drone strike, marking a significant escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran.

Speaking on Fox News, Trump detailed the events leading up to the strike, recounting Israel’s last-minute decision to pull out of the joint operation.

“When we took out Soleimani, you know Israel was supposed to do it with us. Two days before the take-out they said ‘We can’t do it. We can’t do it.’ I said ‘What?’ ‘We can’t do it,’” Trump said.

Despite Israel’s withdrawal, Trump decided to proceed with the strike, consulting a general he described as “great” on the feasibility of carrying out the operation alone. “Then I had a certain general, who’s great, I said, ‘So general, do we do it ourselves?’ He said ‘We can, sir, it’s up to you.’ I said ‘We’ll do it.’”

Trump added that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was heavily involved in the planning process. “But Israel was a part of it. You know, Bibi was a big part of it. And we had everything planned, everything. Because what [Soleimani did] was terrible. What he did to us was terrible. Killed so many of our soldiers. Killed so many people,” Trump said.

Trump claimed that recent attacks on U.S. forces, which resulted in the deaths of three troops, would not have occurred under his leadership. He asserted his strategy kept Iran in check, sharing an anecdote about Iran’s measured response to U.S. aggression during his presidency.

“I had Iran in check. Do you know, we hit them very hard for something that they did, and they had to hit back, they feel they have to do that and I understand that. Do you know, they called me to tell me ‘We’re going to hit a certain location but we’re not gonna hit it, it’s gonna be outside of the perimeter’… They let us know. And we had 16 missiles that went off… And we knew they weren’t going to hit. And now I reveal it… So they aimed those missiles and they said, ‘Please don’t attack us, we’re not going to hit you.’ That was respect, we had respect.”

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