Ted Cruz says he urged Donald Trump to launch Iran strike day before war

Senator Ted Cruz admitted that he urged Donald Trump to move forward with military action against Iran just a day before the conflict began.Cruz said he advised the president that Iran’s regime was at its weakest point and that its collapse would significantly enhance US security. He also indicated that he pushed Trump to step away from diplomatic options in favour of decisive action.“Look, I urged the President to launch this attack. As you noted, I was with him pretty much the entire day on Friday before the attack launched on Saturday. And so we were on Air Force One. We were flying down to Texas to Corpus Christi at a big event, planning Corpus Christi. So I was on the plane with him, and then he asked me to hop in the Beast — the presidential limo — and it was just the two of us, one on one,” Cruz said during the ‘Triggernometry podcast.’“And pretty much the whole time he was asking me what I thought we should do on Iran,” he said and said that one should not negotiate with Iran. Recalling what happened, Cruz said, “I don’t believe they’re negotiating in good faith. They are liars. I think the Ayatollah just wants to delay and delay and delay while they rebuild.”Israel’s military carried out fresh overnight strikes on Iran, where authorities say more than 1,300 civilians have been killed since the war began.The conflict has been compounded by a prolonged internet blackout in Iran, now in its fourth week, according to monitoring group NetBlocks, which warned that the shutdown is worsening conditions for millions of civilians cut off from independent information and emergency alerts.Israeli forces also continued bombardments in Lebanon, including strikes on the capital, Beirut.Meanwhile, Admiral Brad Cooper of U.S. Central Command said American forces have hit more than 8,000 military targets during the conflict, including 130 Iranian vessels. He described it as the most significant destruction of a navy over a three-week period since World War II, adding that Iran’s military capabilities are steadily weakening.