President Donald Trump clarified Tuesday that he may have been the person to have forced Israel's hand in attacking Iran before the Middle Eastern country could strike them. 

The president made the comment during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House. 

The clarification comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly told lawmakers Monday that Israel's plan to strike Iran prompted the United States to take preemptive action to protect troops stationed in the Middle East.

“Based on the way the negotiation was going, I thought they were going to attack first. If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.” Trump clarified Tuesday morning. “But Israel was ready, and we were ready. We’ve had a very, very powerful impact.”

Trump also claimed that the U.S. and Israel knocked out Iran’s navy and “virtually everything they have," in the joint operation, which builds on U.S. Central Command's post Monday that Iran had 11 ships in the Gulf of Oman before the strikes, but now has zero.

The president additionally lashed out at the United Kingdom and Spain over their reluctance to help with the conflict in the Middle East.

“Spain has been very, very uncooperative, and so has the U.K.,” Trump said. “Now the second one is shocking, but this is not the age of Churchill. The U.K. has been very, very uncooperative.”