Rubio suggests US strikes on Iran were influenced by Israeli plans

The US secretary of state says he hopes Iranian people will overthrow the regime, as US military says six service members killed.Published On 2 Mar 2026US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested that a planned Israeli attack on Iran determined the timing of Washington’s assault on the government in Tehran.The top diplomat told reporters on Monday that Washington was aware Israel was going to attack Iran, and that Tehran would retaliate against US interests in the region, so US forces struck pre-emptively.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Netanyahu’s war? Analysts say Trump’s Iran strikes benefit Israel, not USlist 2 of 3Anti-war candidates pose early test for US Democrats after attacks on Iranlist 3 of 3Spain refuses to let US use bases for Iran attacksend of list“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said after a briefing with congressional leaders.“We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”The state secretary’s comments came minutes before the US military confirmed that its death toll from the conflict has risen to six, after two bodies were recovered from a regional facility struck by Iran.Tehran retaliated against the joint US-Israeli attacks that killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, several top officials and hundreds of civilians, with drone and missile launches across the region, including against US bases and assets in the Gulf.Rubio argued on Monday that although the US and Israel jointly attacked first, Washington was acting to thwart an immediate threat because Israel was going to strike Iran on its own, anyway.Israel is a close US ally and has received at least $21bn in military aid from Washington since 2023.“There absolutely was an imminent threat,” Rubio said. “And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked – and we believed they would be attacked – that they would immediately come after us.”The assertion highlights the Israeli role in bringing about the war with Iran, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking for years.