President Barack Obama thwarted an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities in 2014 by threatening to shoot down Israeli fighter jets if they attempted to carry out their bombing run, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper report.
The report, published by Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida and cited by the Bethlehem-based news agency Ma'an, quoted "well-placed" sources as saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had decided after four nights of deliberations to move forward with a plan to conduct air strikes against Iran's nuclear program.
Netanyahu decided to attack Iran "some time in 2014 soon after Israel had discovered the United States and Iran had been involved in secret talks over Iran's nuclear program and were about to sign an agreement in that regard behind Israel's back," the report said, according to Israel National News.
A "qualitative operation" plan was prepared, and Israeli fighter jets trained for a few weeks to prepare for the operation. Israeli jets even conducted experimental flights inside Iranian territory after they managed to elude radars, according to the report.
The U.S. was supposedly made aware of the plan after an unnamed Israeli minister with ties to the Obama administration warned Secretary of State John Kerry. President Obama then threatened to shoot down the Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran, forcing Netanyahu to abort the attack, the report said.
The White House National Security Twitter account addressed the report on Sunday, saying, "Like a lot of rumors lately about Iran talks, there is no truth to 'reports' about Obama & Israeli jets."
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told Breitbart the report was "completely false."
Along with planning an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, the report said that Netanyahu and his cabinet decided to do "whatever they could do to thwart a possible agreement between Iran and the White House because such an agreement is, allegedly, a threat to Israel's security."
The report comes just two days before Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a speech to Congress on Tuesday, where he is expected to ask lawmakers to impose more sanctions on Iran instead of making a deal limiting the country's nuclear efforts.
