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Before the War: Talks Under Way and an Order Already Given

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED for the negotiating calendar and the IAEA vote; STRONG for the Israeli planning timeline, which comes from Israeli and British reporting.

Most Americans heard about the Iran war when the bombs were already falling. The months before it matter more than the twelve days themselves, because they show that the United States and Iran were in the middle of talks, that Israel had been planning its attack for more than a year, and that Israel's prime minister gave the order to attack while Washington was still negotiating.

Spring 2025: five rounds of talks​

In the spring of 2025 the United States and Iran held five rounds of nuclear talks. Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff led the American side. Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi led the Iranian side. Oman mediated. As compiled by @MichaelARothman:

RoundDatePlace
1April 12, 2025Muscat, Oman
2April 19, 2025Rome
3April 26, 2025Muscat (with some direct dialogue)
4May 11, 2025Muscat
5May 23, 2025Rome, where Oman reported "some but not conclusive progress"

A sixth round was scheduled. Le Monde: "the sixth round of negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program was scheduled for Sunday, June 15" (Le Monde, June 26, 2025). Israel struck two days before it.

Trump later described those talks in his own words: "We really had the confines of a deal. No nuclear. They were going to give us the dust — nuclear dust, everything we wanted." He said each time a deal seemed close, "the next day it's like we did not have that conversation. And that's taken place about five times" (video posted by @MichaelARothman, May 15, 2026). Witkoff's version: "we were repeatedly rebuffed on everything we asked for" (same post). The American demands, as listed there, were decommissioning of nuclear facilities, no enrichment at all, and cuts to ballistic missiles.

Iran's side of the story is that it was offering a great deal. A senior Iranian lawmaker, Hassan Qashqavi, said in September 2026 that Iran had offered "$500 billion worth of projects to US companies during Geneva negotiations before the 2025 war," because "They kept telling us Trump is a businessman. If he smells economic opportunity and profit, he'll back off" (Iran International, September 14, 2026). That is an Iranian claim, but it matches the picture of a negotiation that was still live.

What Washington was doing at the same time​

Investigative reporter Emily Kopp, writing for Racket, dug up dates that show pressure and preparation running alongside the talks (Kopp on X, March 1, 2026):

  • February 5, 2025. Sixteen days after taking office, Trump signed a memo putting "maximum pressure on Iran" across agencies, with terms that went beyond nuclear weapons: "Iran's aggressive development of missiles, as well as other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities, should be countered."
  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later described the goal plainly: "What we [have done] at Treasury is created a dollar shortage in the country ... the Iranian currency went into freefall, inflation exploded" (same post). In March 2025 he had told the New York Economic Club the goal was "Making Iran Broke Again" (as reported by ZeroHedge and posted by @OwenGregorian).
  • March 2025. Before the talks began, "Mossad began working to create a 'target bank' of Iranian firepower, air superiority, nuclear developments, personnel, etc." (Kopp).
  • June 13, 2025. "On the day Israel launched the 12-day war, one of Iran's enrichment sites was due for inspection by the IAEA" (Kopp).

Israel's 14 months of planning​

The Jerusalem Post, Israel's English-language daily, traced Israel's preparation back to Iran's first direct missile and drone attack on Israel in April 2024. Its explainer by Yonah Jeremy Bob describes Mossad Director David Barnea working in April 2025 to "convince Trump's team to harden their negotiating positions" (Jerusalem Post, June 20, 2025). In other words, while American diplomats were negotiating, Israel's spy chief was lobbying them to make the terms harder for Iran to accept.

The IDF itself tied the June war to an earlier strike. Marking the anniversary of its October 26, 2024 attack on Iranian air defenses, "Operation Days of Repentance," Israel's military said that operation "paved the way for June's 12-day war" (as posted by @Osint613, October 26, 2025).

June 8 to 10: the decision​

  • June 8. Trump met his national security team at Camp David to discuss Israel's plans to attack Iran. Present, according to CNN and Politico reporting summarized by @SMO_VZ: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, whose office had told Congress in March that Iran was not building a bomb, was absent. It was, by one count, only the first of two visits Trump made to Camp David in his second term, "days before U.S. B-2 bombers leveled the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites" (@MichaelARothman, citing CBS News).
  • June 9. "On Monday June 9, he [Netanyahu] told his military chiefs to proceed. The following day, he phoned Mr Trump" (The Telegraph, June 24, 2025).
  • June 10. Gabbard posted a video warning that "political elite and warmongers" were pushing the world toward "nuclear annihilation." Trump, according to Politico as summarized in the same @SMO_VZ post, was incensed; a senior White House official said he "doesn't like it when people are off message."

A senior Israeli official later told an Israeli commentator how tense those final days were: "The prime minister was counting the hours. He kept telling his people: 48 more hours... 24 more hours... He was really worried about a leak. The Americans knew and evacuated their people from Iraq. That was a clear telltale sign" (as posted by @JewishWarrior13, June 15, 2025). American personnel were being moved out of harm's way before the first Israeli bomb fell.

June 12: the IAEA vote​

On June 12 the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear inspectors, voted 19 to 3 with 11 abstentions that Iran was "not complying" with its safeguards obligations (UN News). The finding was about unexplained uranium traces at old undeclared sites, not about building a bomb. The resolution's sponsors were the United States, Britain, France and Germany. Iran answered the same day by announcing a new enrichment site. Israel attacked within hours. The full story of that vote is on The June 12 Board Resolution.

Why this matters​

A country that is attacked two days before a scheduled negotiating round, with its enrichment site due for inspection that very morning, learns that talking does not protect it. Iran's president said so the day the war ended: "Iran was present at the negotiating table... History will not forget the breaking of covenants and charters by the enemies of Iran, who resorted to aggression and invasion during the negotiations" (Masoud Pezeshkian, as posted by @SuppressedNws, June 24, 2025). Eight months later it happened again: talks in Geneva on February 26, 2026, and bombs two days later. See After the Ceasefire.

Status: Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Steve Witkoff, Abbas Araghchi, David Barnea, Scott Bessent, Tulsi Gabbard, Hassan Qashqavi and Masoud Pezeshkian are alive, as far as these sources show.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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