‘Obama, Bush, Biden said no,’ before Trump agreed to Netanyahu's Iran war push: Here's what John Kerry said

Before President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously proposed a military conflict with Iran to multiple American leaders, all of whom rejected the overture, according to John Kerry, former US Secretary of State.

“Obama said no. Bush said no. President Biden said no. I mean, I was part of those conversations,” Kerry said during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He explained that past presidents declined to engage in a war with Tehran because they had not “exhausted all the remedies of peaceful process.”

Reflecting on his experiences as a Vietnam veteran, Kerry argued that the conflicts in Vietnam and Iraq provide a vital lesson in transparency. He emphasised the importance of not deceiving the public before committing troops to battle.

“And speaking as a veteran of the Vietnam War, where decisions like that were so critical, we were lied to about what that war was about,” he said. “…and the lesson of that war and of Iraq is don't lie to the American people and then ask them to send their sons and daughters to fight.”

The former Secretary of State further dismissed the arguments presented by the Israeli leader as a "prediction". Kerry noted that the claims regarding a domestic uprising or a transition in power failed to materialise, stating that none of the anticipated "regime change" occurred.

A New York Times (NYT) report suggested that Prime Minister Netanyahu found a more receptive audience in Trump. During a high-level meeting in the Situation Room on 11 February, Netanyahu reportedly made a "hard sell", arguing that the Islamic Republic was "ripe for regime change".

The report indicated that Netanyahu expressed a firm "belief that a joint US-Israeli mission could finally bring an end to the Islamic Republic". In response to the proposal, Trump reportedly remarked, "Sounds good to me," effectively providing a green light for the joint operation.

Despite Trump's initial support, the strategy has faced internal scrutiny.

According to Axios, US Vice President JD Vance recently held a tense discussion with the Israeli Premier, questioning the "overly rosy assumptions" regarding the conflict.

The report suggests that Vance challenged Netanyahu's confidence concerning the probability of "regime change".

A US official reportedly told NYT that "before the war, Bibi really sold it to the president as being easy, as regime change being a lot likelier than it was. And the VP was clear-eyed about some of those statements."

Axios reported that US officials first saw the divisions after the first round of Islamabad talks, when it became clear IRGC commander Gen Ahmad Vahidi and his deputies had rejected much of what Iran's own negotiators had discussed.

The split became public last Friday when Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, but the IRGC refused to implement it and began publicly attacking him, Axios reported.

In the following days, Iran gave no substantive response to the latest US proposal and refused to commit to a second round of talks in Pakistan.