The U.S. was represented at the UN Security Council's emergency session on Friday by State Department Senior Bureau Official McCoy Pitt, who said the U.S. was advised by Israel that the actions carried out against Iran overnight were "necessary for its self-defense."

President Donald Trump vetoed a plan presented to the U.S. in recent days to kill Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter

James Anderson, former acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy during the first Trump administration, told Newsweek what Iran's possible next steps may be.