US Officials Now Denying Heads Up From Iran on Attack As Questions Build Over Alleged Communication

We reported how about the prior communication that the U.S. had allegedly received prior to Iran's attack on Israel, and it's been building into a real problem for them.

I wrote Sunday morning on an NBC report that the Islamic Republic and the United States communicated about the matter for over two weeks:

In back-channel communications with the U.S. over the past two weeks, Iran indicated it would retaliate against Israel but wanted to avoid an escalation that would lead to all-out war, U.S. officials said.
The question now is whether Iran’s attack will be interpreted in the way Tehran has planned, or trigger an unintended reaction from Israel that could escalate into an uncontrollable cycle of violence, analysts said.

Then came the report from a source in the Turkish foreign ministry that there had been communication through Turkey to Iran.

Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters on Sunday, adding that the US conveyed to Iran via Ankara that its operation must be "within certain limits."https://t.co/iG8Qr8WIYk
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) April 14, 2024

"Iran informed us in advance of what would happen. Possible developments also came up during the meeting with Blinken, and they (the US) conveyed to Iran through us that this reaction must be within certain limits," the source said.

According to Reuters, Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday that they gave neighboring countries and the U.S. 72 hours' notice.

Turkey's foreign ministry said it spoke to both Iran and the U.S. before the attack "adding it had conveyed messages as an intermediary to be sure reactions were proportionate."

"Iran said the reaction would be a response to Israel’s attack on its embassy in Damascus and that it would not go beyond this. We were aware of the possibilities. The developments were not a surprise," said a Turkish diplomatic source. [....]

Iraqi, Turkish and Jordanian officials each said Iran had provided early warning of the attack last week, including some details.

Now a senior U.S. official is denying this, saying although they had contact with Iran through the Swiss, they didn't get 72 hours' notice.

"That is absolutely not true,” the official said. “They did not give a notification, nor did they give any sense of ... 'these will be the targets, so evacuate them.'"

Tehran sent the United States a message only after the strikes began and the intent was to be "highly destructive" said the official, adding that Iran's claim of a widespread warning may be an attempt to compensate for the lack of any major damage from the attack.

"We received a message from the Iranians as this was ongoing, through the Swiss. This was basically suggesting that they were finished after this, but it was still an ongoing attack. So that was (their) message to us," the U.S. official said.

So why are the Iraqi, Turkish, and Jordanian officials saying it then? Is this backpedaling by the Biden team because so many people were upset over the apparent communication with Iran on this? Why did Joe Biden come racing back from his vacation on Saturday if he didn't get notice?