US Secretary of State Rubio says strikes on Iran were carried after Israeli influence
Washington DC: Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State has reportedly suggested that the planned Israeli attack on Iran influenced the timing of Washington’s military action against the government in Tehran.
According to a report by Al Jazeera, speaking to reporters on Monday after briefing congressional leaders, Rubio said that the United States was aware that Israel was going to carry out an attack on Iran.
He stated that Washington expected Tehran to respond by targeting American bases in the region, and therefore US forces acted before such retaliation could take place.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said after the briefing.
“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," Rubio was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
His remarks came just minutes before the US military confirmed that the American death toll in the conflict had risen to six. The confirmation came after two bodies were recovered from a regional facility that had been struck by Iran.
Tehran had reportedly launched drone and missile attacks across the region in response to joint US-Israeli strikes. Those earlier strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, several top officials and hundreds of civilians.
Iranian retaliation included attacks on US bases and assets in the Gulf, the report added.
Rubio said on Monday that even though the United States and Israel attacked first, Washington’s action was meant to stop what he described as an immediate threat, as Israel was going to strike Iran on its own, anyway.
According to Al Jazeera, Israel is a close US ally and has received at least 21bn dollars 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,” he added.
According to the report, his assertion pointed to Israel’s role in the events that led to the war with Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for years called for action against Tehran.
On Sunday, Netanyahu said that the attacks on Iran were being carried out with the help of the “friend”, US President Donald Trump.
“This coalition of forces allows us to do what I have yearned to do for 40 years,” the Israeli prime minister reportedly stated in a video message.
Rubio also said that action against Iran was necessary because Tehran was building up missiles and drones. He said these weapons would have been used to protect Iran’s nuclear programme and to obtain a nuclear bomb.
The United States and Israel began the war less than 48 hours after a round of talks between American and Iranian officials regarding Tehran’s nuclear programme, the report added.
Rubio stated that the aim of the war is to destroy Iran’s missile and drone programmes. At the same time, he said the US would welcome a change in Iran’s governing system.
“We would not be heartbroken, and we hope that the Iranian people can overthrow this government and establish a new future for that country. We would love for that to be possible,” he added.
Later on Monday, Washington issued an advisory urging US citizens in more than a dozen countries in the Middle East to leave immediately. The countries mentioned included Gulf Cooperation Council nations, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The advisory cited increasing unrest and threats in the region.
The State Department “urges Americans to DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks”, US official Mora Namdar reportedly said on X.
The @SecRubio @StateDept urges Americans to DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks. Americans who need State Department assistance arranging to depart via commercial means, CALL US 24/7 at +1-202-501-4444 (from… pic.twitter.com/vdplAik2Sq
— Assistant Secretary Mora Namdar (@AsstSecStateCA) March 2, 2026
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
