Before the decision, Trump was said to be dissatisfied with Iran's attitude toward talks about the country's nuclear program after receiving a Geneva status report on Thursday.
After the status report, Trump saw no signs that Iran would agree to stop enriching uranium.
In the lead-up to the attack, the US had been concentrating military capabilities in the Middle East for a month, including the aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford. The US Air Force had also deployed many fighter jets and other military equipment to several air bases in the region, including Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
