Israel's passive involvement in the January 2020 assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was "disappointing," former US president Donald Trump told Walla reporter Barak Ravid.
Soleimani, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander, was killed by an American airstrike ordered by Trump at the Baghdad International Airport.
Now, comments made by Trump for Israeli reporter Barak Ravid's upcoming book Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East shed new light on tensions between Israel and the US – or more specifically Trump and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – after the assassination.
Israel "did not do the right thing" by not playing a more active role in the assassination of Soleimani, Trump told Ravid.
"I was very disappointed in Israel having to do with that event," the former president said. "People will be hearing about that at the right time."
Trump also attacked Netanyahu individually, stating he was "willing to fight Iran until the last American soldier." A number of explosive comments aimed at Netanyahu by Trump have been released over the last month, as he accused the Israeli opposition head of deceiving him about his sincerity to make a peace deal with the Palestinians.
A senior Israeli defense official denied Trump's claims, stating that Israel proposed to be more active in the assassination. The US insisted on carrying out the attack, according to Ravid.
In addition, several reports stating Israel aided the US in the assassination with varying degrees of involvement also cast doubt on the legitimacy of Trump's comments.
On Monday, the former head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Tamir Hayman stated that Israel was involved in the assassination.
In May, it was reported by Yahoo News that Jerusalem gave Washington access to several cell phone numbers to help enable Soleimani's assassination.