US President Donald Trump said today in the Oval Office that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not force him to launch the US military operation against Iran, NBC News reports.

"No, maybe I forced them into it. You see, we were negotiating with these maniacs, and in my opinion, they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we hadn't done it, they would have attacked first. I was very firm on that," Trump told journalists ahead of a bilateral meeting with the German Chancellor.

"I think they were going to attack first. And I didn't want that to happen. So if anything, I may have forced Israel into it, but Israel was ready, and we were ready, and we had a very, very powerful impact, because virtually everything they had was destroyed," the US president added.