Summary facts
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings Sunday that U.S. intelligence did not indicate Iran was preparing to carry out a preemptive strike against the United States, according to three people familiar with the briefings. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details had not been made public, instead pointed to a more general threat in the region involving Iran’s missiles and proxy forces. One of the people said the administration still emphasized that Iran’s missile and proxy capabilities posed an imminent threat to U.S. personnel and allies.
The account from those private briefings contrasted with President Donald Trump’s public message after the U.S. and Israel launched a joint operation. In a video message after the strikes began, Trump said, “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime. A vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” according to the AP report.
The AP said the officials did not provide clarity about what would happen next in Iran after the joint operation. The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday night, the report said. Politico first reported details of the congressional briefings.
The briefing schedule set by the White House also underscored the immediate focus on oversight. The White House said Sunday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would brief the full membership of Congress on the U.S. military operation against Iran on Tuesday. Rubio was also slated to brief House and Senate leadership Monday, the same day Hegseth and Caine are planning a press conference about the operation.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House and Senate committee that received the intelligence briefings, told AP that the U.S. relationship with Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, has been strong, but that he had concerns about the case for the strikes and what comes after them. “No tears will be shed over their leadership being eliminated, but always the question is: OK, what next?” Warner said.
The AP report also described how U.S. and Israeli authorities carried out the operation. It said military planners spent weeks tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and shared information that enabled a surprise daylight attack. An Israeli military official and another person familiar with the planning said three strikes in three locations hit within a single minute, killing Khamenei and some 40 senior figures, including the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and Iran’s defense minister.
The Israeli official said the operation’s speed and timing reflected factors including training and monitoring of senior figures’ movements, along with intelligence gathered in real time. The official said striking during daylight added an element of surprise aimed at preventing key figures from fleeing after an initial strike. The official also said Israel cooperated closely with U.S. counterparts and used a similar approach at the start of last June’s war.
As the conflict entered its second day, Trump said in a video message Sunday that he expected the strikes to continue until “all of our objectives are achieved,” according to the AP report. He also said the U.S. and partners hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including Revolutionary Guard facilities, Iranian air defense systems and nine warships, “all in a matter of literally minutes,” the report said. The military announced Sunday that three American troops had been killed in the Iran operation.
The AP said the CIA had tracked senior Iranian leaders for months and shared that information with Israeli officials. It said U.S. and Israeli intelligence-sharing influenced the timing of the strikes based in part on the leaders’ locations.
The AP reported that one senior White House official said Iran’s “new potential leadership” has suggested it is open to talks with the United States, and that Trump has indicated he’s “eventually” willing to talk while the military operation “continues unabated.” Separate from that official’s account, Trump told The Atlantic that he planned to speak with Iran’s new leadership, saying, “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” the AP report said.