NEW YORK, April 18. /TASS/. Prior to Iran’s attack on Israel, the Pentagon assured the Jewish state that this retaliatory strike will be the best way to defuse tensions in the region after Israeli strike on Iran’s diplomatic building in Syria, because Washington had no doubts that all missiles and drones will be intercepted, US journalist Seymour Hersh said in his blog on Substack.

"I am not allowed to name the American senior military officers and advisers who made the unusual faux missile attack happen. But it’s important to say that President Joe Biden, whose foreign policy team was not involved in the process, accepted the high-risk plan and publicly urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose political career and personal freedom depend on keeping the war in Gaza going, and the rest of the Israeli leadership not to respond to Iran," the US journalist said.

He also assured that the US military contacted Russia and the United Kingdom while evaluating the potential of the Iranian attack. After consulations, a plan emerged to let Iran launch its missiles and drones and have its revenge while "understanding that the air forces of America, Europe, and the Middle East would track and destroy them all." The plan was exercised "with Iran’s approval," the US journalist said.

The Pentagon leadership planned this operation without formally consulting with US President Joe Biden or White House officials. The US military was convinced that "there would never be formal approval for such a radical strategy."

"During the secret planning, the official said, America’s allies were told: ‘We are going to share all the information about the fired Iranian drones and missiles we collect.’ There was a tough session with a senior Israeli official who was informed, the American official said, that Israel had two options: one, ‘win easy’ and let the American coalition destroy the missiles; or two, ‘lose the hard way’ and respond with violence to the failed attack. ‘If you chose the hard way,’ the Israeli was told, ‘you’re on your own’," Hersh wrote.

On the evening of April 13, Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel in response to what it called "repeated crimes," including an attack on the consular office of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus. Tehran said that that attack targeted Israel’s military facilities. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed it intercepted 99% of the nearly 350 Iranian projectiles launched at Israel, saying that minor damage had been caused to Nevatim Air Base.