Former US (United States) Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly pitched a war plan against Iran to multiple US presidents, but only Donald Trump agreed to it.
Speaking during a television appearance, Kerry said that Netanyahu had presented the case for military action against Iran during different administrations. He said that Barack Obama, George W Bush, and Joe Biden all rejected the proposal.
“Obama said no. Bush said no. President Biden said no,” Kerry said, adding that he had been part of those discussions during his time in office.
Kerry said earlier US administrations refused to approve military action because they had not “exhausted all the remedies of peaceful process”.
He said that Netanyahu’s arguments were based on expectations that Iran would see internal unrest and regime change following an attack, but those outcomes did not materialise.
“It was a prediction… people will rise up, regime change will happen. None of that happened,” he said.
Referring to past conflicts, Kerry drew parallels with the Vietnam and Iraq wars and warned against misleading the public about military interventions. He said decisions of that scale carried serious human consequences.
“The lesson of Vietnam and Iraq is: don’t lie to the American people and then ask them to send their sons and daughters to fight,” he firmly stated.
Kerry’s remarks come amid reports that Netanyahu convinced Trump during a Situation Room meeting to support a joint US-Israeli operation against Iran. According to an international media outlet, Trump signalled approval during that discussion.
