As Israeli bombs fell on the supreme leader's compound in Tehran on Saturday morning, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was meeting above ground with several of his top advisers.

• He never saw it coming, Axios' Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo report.

Why it matters: The joint U.S.-Israeli operation that killed Khamenei was the culmination of two months in which President Trump pursued both diplomacy and war on parallel tracks. On Friday, he chose war.

The crisis, which began with the public uprising in Iran in late December, was vintage Trump — full of twists, last-minute reversals and deliberate disinformation.

• In the end, the ambiguity was itself a strategic asset, leaving Iran's leadership vulnerable to the largest aerial attack ever conducted by the Israeli military.
• This account is based largely on statements by U.S. and allied officials in the aftermath of the strikes and couldn't immediately be verified by independent sources.

How it happened: The seeds of Saturday's operation were planted in late December, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

• Anti-regime protests had just begun in Iran, and it wasn't yet clear how significant they would become.
• Netanyahu used the meeting to discuss a follow-up to last year's joint strikes — mostly focused on Iran's ballistic missile capabilities — tentatively planned for around May.

Within days, the calculus changed.

• The regime cracked down with full force, killing thousands. "HELP IS ON ITS WAY," Trump wrote on Truth Social, urging protesters to take over government institutions.
• On Jan. 14, Trump was on the verge of ordering strikes but pulled back. Instead, he ordered a massive military buildup in the Middle East, and began secretly planning a joint operation with Israel.
• Over the following weeks, the Mossad director visited D.C. twice, followed by the Israeli military intelligence chief and the IDF chief of staff — all coordinating what would become Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion.

The other track: At the same time, Trump explored whether military leverage could produce a deal with Iran on his terms.

• The U.S. and Iran met in Oman in early February for the first time since last June's 12-day war.
• Days later, Netanyahu traveled urgently to Washington to discuss U.S. red lines in the negotiations — and whether the U.S. and Israel would launch a joint military operation if talks failed.

From the start, Trump's envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, were skeptical about the chances of getting a deal — but three U.S. and Israeli officials stressed that nuclear talks in Geneva weren't a complete ruse.

• Trump wanted to try to reach an agreement, and the Iranians were told explicitly that military strikes "would occur if we did not see real progress on a real deal very quickly," a U.S. official said.

Between the lines: A week before the Geneva meeting, the U.S. and Israel agreed on a potential window for launching the attack — the coming Saturday, when Khamenei held a routine meeting with his top aides at his government compound.

• But they faced a specific challenge: keeping Khamenei from suspecting anything and retreating to his underground bunker.
• An Israeli intelligence official said an Axios story that mentioned the possibility of assassinating Khamenei created anxiety among military planners. But the Iranian leader didn't change his plans.

The final talks: When Kushner and Witkoff traveled to Geneva on Thursday, they already suspected there was no deal to be had — but still went through with the meeting. That kept the Iranians believing diplomacy was alive.

• "One of the rules of deal-making is that you have to know very quickly if there's a deal to do or not," a U.S. official said.
• In the room, the Iranians hadn't come close to even the most flexible U.S. position. After the first session, Kushner and Witkoff called Vice President Vance on a secure line and told him the gaps were still wide. A second round that evening changed nothing.

"Kushner and Witkoff saw that the Iranian proposal was bullsh*t and only meant to buy time," a senior U.S. official said. "There wasn't any 'there' there to work with."

• Another official summed up Iran's strategy as "games, tricks, stall tactics" from the start. "We reported this to the president, and obviously he weighed the different options," the official said.

U.S. officials said there were three areas they could not get Iran to agree on.

1. Nuclear program and enrichment activities: The U.S. offered Iran free nuclear fuel for a civilian nuclear program — indefinitely — in exchange for giving up enrichment. The Iranians said no. "It was a big tell," one official said.
2. Ballistic missile program: The Iranians refused "in every instance" to discuss their missile capabilities. "We cannot continue to live in a world where these people not only possess missiles but the ability to make 100 of them a month in perpetuity, to overwhelm any potential defenses," one official said.
3. Financing of regional proxies: Iran also refused to address its financing of militant groups across the region, which the U.S. and Israel say has destabilized the Middle East for decades.

Behind the scenes: Before and during the talks, U.S. officials said intelligence made clear Iran was already rebuilding the nuclear facilities that Trump claimed were "obliterated" in Operation Midnight Hammer last June.

• When Kushner and Witkoff asked for a concrete proposal, the Iranians produced a seven-page document outlining enrichment needs they claimed were for civilian purposes.
• Trump's team checked the numbers with the UN's nuclear watchdog. "This would result in enrichment capability roughly five times more than laid out in the [2015 nuclear deal]," one official said.

Officials also said Iran had been secretly stockpiling enriched material at the Tehran Research Reactor under the guise of medical research.

• "Never once did they use any of the fissionable material there to make even a single medicine," one official said. "It was all designed to deceive."

The final hours: After Geneva, Oman's foreign minister flew urgently to Washington and met with Vance on Friday in a last-ditch attempt to delay Trump's decision.

• But the president had already made up his mind.
• When an Arab official asked Witkoff on Friday whether an attack was imminent, the White House envoy dodged the question.

On Saturday morning, Khamenei convened his aides as U.S. and Israeli planners had anticipated.

• Two other gatherings of Iranian security and intelligence officials were taking place above ground in Tehran at the same time. Minutes later, all three were struck simultaneously.

"If the Iranians had come to Geneva and given Trump what he wanted, he would have pulled the brakes on the military track," an Israeli intelligence official said. "But they were arrogant and thought he wouldn't take action. They were wrong."

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The U.S. used Anthropic's Claude to support Operation Epic Fury against Iran yesterday, sources familiar with the Pentagon's operations tell Axios.

Why it matters: The military's use of Claude to capture Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro in January ignited the showdown between Anthropic and the Pentagon. Late Friday, the Pentagon said Anthropic will be designated a supply-chain risk. Anthropic vowed to fight in court.

• Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth said: "Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition."

Four and a half hours after the Pentagon vowed to banish Anthropic, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced an agreement for military use of his models.

• "We think our agreement has more guardrails than any previous agreement for classified AI deployments, including Anthropic's," an OpenAI statement said yesterday.

The backstory: OpenAI's new Pentagon deal doesn't explicitly prohibit collecting Americans' publicly available information — a sticking point that rival Anthropic says is crucial for ensuring domestic mass surveillance doesn't take place, Axios' Maria Curi reports.

• The Pentagon says mass surveillance is already illegal.

📱 Altman was asked thousands of questions about his Pentagon contract during an "ask me anything" on X last night, including whether he was worried there would be a dispute later on with the Pentagon over what's legal or not.

• Altman, who has 4.4 million X followers, replied: "Yes, I am. If we have to take on that fight we will, but it clearly exposes us to some risk."

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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says today on "CBS News Sunday Morning": "We are still interested in working with [the Defense Department] as long as it is in line with our red lines."

• The Pentagon still sees Anthropic's Claude as superior to other models.

Amodei told CBS News' Jo Ling Kent late Friday: "If we can get to the point with the department where we can see things the same way, then perhaps there could be an agreement. ... For our part and for the sake of U.S. national security, we continue to want to make this work."

• Amodei said Anthropic has sought to deploy its AI models for military use because "we are patriotic Americans" and "we believe in this country."

Emil Michael, the Pentagon's chief technology officer, told CBS News on Thursday: "At some level, you have to trust your military to do the right thing."

• Watch the Amodei video.

Top Democrats yesterday urged Congress to return to Washington and vote on war powers resolutions after the Trump administration struck Iran, Axios' Kate Santaliz, Avery Lotz and Hans Nichols report.

• The House isn't expected to return until Wednesday. The Senate returns Monday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) before the strikes.

• Rubio updated the Gang of Eight — a group made up of the party leaders in both chambers and top lawmakers on the Intelligence Committees — on Iran last week.

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner of Virginia, criticized the administration for acting without congressional authorization.

• "The American people have seen this playbook before — claims of urgency, misrepresented intelligence, and military action that pulls the United States into regime change and prolonged, costly nation-building," Warner said.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said: "Every single Senator needs to go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action." Kaine had been planning to force a vote on his war powers resolution next week.

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Iran is targeting U.S. bases and Israel with ballistic missiles and drones, with the fallout spilling into neighboring states that host American forces or lie along key flight paths, Axios' Lauren Floyd writes.

• Those areas include the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.
• Go deeper.

🛢️ The strikes on Iran will likely push up oil prices by creating new risks to supplies from the region that's home to a large chunk of global output and transit. Flashpoints to watch, per Axios' Ben Geman:

1. 🚢 The Strait of Hormuz: The narrow waterway next to Iran is a choke point that handles a whopping one-fourth of the world's maritime oil trade and a fifth of liquefied natural gas shipments. Some tankers are already avoiding the area.
2. ⛔ Disruption of Iranian production and shipments: Iran is OPEC's fourth-largest oil producer and exports roughly 1.5 million barrels per day, primarily to China.
3. 🇮🇷 Iranian retaliation against Middle East producers: The most market-moving scenario would be Iran striking infrastructure — like oilfields and export terminals — in other major Arab oil-producing nations.

Keep reading.

Many Gen Zers prefer hybrid work because of the work-from-home toll on networking and career advancement, Axios' Sami Sparber reports.

• Just 23% of remote-capable Gen Z workers prefer fully remote jobs, compared with 35% among older generations, Gallup polling shows.

"Gen Z is the most likely to say they wish employees in their organization worked remotely less often," Gallup found. "In contrast, millennials are the most likely to say they want other employees to work remotely more often."

• Keep reading.

President Trump talks to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles yesterday in a secure space at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., during Operation Epic Fury.

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the Mar-a-Lago Situation Room yesterday.

Vice President JD Vance was in the White House Situation Room overnight as the military operation began in Iran, dialed into a conference line with Trump and the team at Mar-a-Lago. (The Washington Post)

• Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard are on the left. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is in the right foreground.

For national security reasons, the photo has been partially blurred so that lettering isn't legible.