Turkey Admits: We Warned Iran Hours Before Israel's Attack

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has provided a rare and gripping look behind the curtain of the 12-day war that shook the Middle East last June. In a detailed interview with CNN Turk, Fidan described a frantic diplomatic environment where Washington used Ankara as a conduit for a chilling ultimatum to Tehran. This revelation comes as Turkey attempts to position itself as a necessary mediator in the current standoff, warning that the region cannot withstand another full-scale war. Fidan’s account suggests that even when scheduled meetings are on the calendar, the threat of immediate military action remains a primary tool of American and Israeli strategy, a precedent that now hangs over the ongoing negotiations in Oman.

The Midnight Warning

According to Fidan, the intensity of the June war reached a boiling point when he received a direct and urgent phone call from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The message from Washington was blunt and gave no room for negotiation. "In the 12-day war in June, we received a phone call from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said: 'Tell the Iranians, within a few hours everything can happen,'" Fidan recalled. This message was intended to serve as a final warning to the Iranian leadership to stand down or face immediate destruction.

Fidan immediately relayed the message to his Iranian counterpart, who was reportedly stunned by the timing. The Iranian minister responded in disbelief, questioning how such an escalation was possible when a diplomatic meeting had already been scheduled. "This was the United States speaking, and it was Israel that attacked," Fidan added, highlighting the seamless coordination between Washington and Jerusalem that often catches regional powers off guard. This "good cop, bad cop" routine, where the U.S. offers a channel for warnings while Israel delivers the kinetic blow, is a tactic Turkey is now working feverishly to prevent from being repeated.

Preventing a Regional Disaster

The Foreign Minister emphasized that Ankara is doing everything in its power to avoid a similar "surprise" in the coming weeks. While Fidan noted that he does not currently see an "immediate threat" of war, he warned that the atmosphere is so charged that any misstep could lead to a catastrophe. He stressed that Turkey’s sensitivity to the issue is at an all-time high, especially as U.S. forces continue to flow into the Gulf.

Fidan’s primary concern remains that military strikes alone will fail to achieve the political goals Washington desires. He reiterated his belief that "regime change" in Tehran is not something that can be accomplished from the air, and that any attempt to do so would only drag the entire region into a "black hole" of violence. By revealing the details of the Rubio phone call, Fidan is sending a message to both Tehran and Washington: the channel of communication through Ankara is open, but the price of ignoring it is a regional war that no one is truly prepared to finish.