Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said he believed “there’s some truth” to reports that U.S. President Joe Biden negotiated in advance with Iran on the extent of its massive missile attack on Israel.
During the Tuesday edition of the New York City-based radio show, “Sid & Friends in the Morning,” host Sid Rosenberg said he believed that Biden was “behind the whole thing” referring to the missile barrage on Israel.
“I was kind of skeptical, but as the stories are coming out… Look, if this ends up being true, this will be an absolute outrage and a scandal the likes of which I haven’t seen before,” Friedman agreed.
The former ambassador accused Biden of being unprincipled enough to do such a thing, and that he would presumably be motivated by the fear of losing the presidential election over high gas prices, an inevitable result of a regional Mideast conflagration.
The White House has categorically denied the rumors with National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby telling the press on Monday, “I’ve also seen this speculation about messages passed back and forth and warnings.
“We did receive messages from Iran. And they received messages from us, too. But there was never any message to us or to anyone else on the timeframe, the targets, or the type of response,” he said.
“In fact, before yesterday it was presumed that 100 ballistic missiles might overwhelm even the best defensive systems. That was Iran’s intent. And as you all saw for yourself, it didn’t work,” Kirby added, crediting “Israel’s remarkable defensive systems.”
On Monday, Reuters cited an unnamed Turkish diplomatic source, who said Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had acted as a kind of go-between between his U.S. and Iranian counterparts over the past week to discuss the upcoming Iranian attack.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Fidan to relay to the Iranians that a regional escalation was not in anyone’s interest, the report said.
“Iran informed us in advance of what would happen. Possible developments also came up during the meeting with Blinken, and they (the U.S.) conveyed to Iran through us that this reaction must be within certain limits,” the source said. JNS
