WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that, based on what he is hearing, the flydubai co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of an Israel-bound flight is linked to Iran, while stressing that U.S. officials are still checking the claim.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump was asked whether he had been briefed on a possible Iranian connection. “I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes, but we’re working on it right now,” he said.

Asked whether Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could have placed the co-pilot on the flight, or whether the co-pilot was radicalized another way, Trump said it was possible. He did not offer evidence. ​

The remarks followed Wednesday’s emergency on flydubai Flight FZ1073, which left Dubai for Tel Aviv with about 174 people on board, most of them Israelis. Israeli officials say an Omani co-pilot stabbed the captain, Indian national Smit Machchhar, and tried to crash the Boeing 737. The aircraft dropped sharply, transmitted an emergency signal, and diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely. ​

Machchhar, who was seriously wounded, managed to open the cockpit door. Passengers and crew then restrained the co-pilot. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has credited Machchhar with saving the people on board and has also praised passenger Yaniv Hayun, who helped pull the attacker from the controls. Machchhar was reported in stable condition at a hospital in Tabuk. ​

Israeli and U.S. accounts of any wider plot remain at odds. Netanyahu has said it is too early to determine whether Iran was involved. An Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that the working assumption is still that the co-pilot acted alone, and that the investigation is continuing. ​

The United Arab Emirates has opened a formal investigation. Saudi authorities detained the co-pilot after the landing. Oman has not publicly commented. Flydubai has said the motive is unknown and subject to the official inquiry.

Trump said a day earlier that he had spoken at length with Netanyahu and that the co-pilot appeared to be “a terrorist or perhaps a whack job,” while cautioning that he was repeating an account he had heard and could not confirm.