The United States launched weekend strikes against Tehran after learning of a planned Israeli action that would have risked retaliation against American forces, according to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Preemptive Strikes
Rubio stated that U.S. officials knew an Israeli action was planned and anticipated it would provoke an attack on American forces. He said the U.S. preemptively struck to avoid higher casualties. “We knew that they would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio told reporters.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to Rubio’s statements, alleging the U.S. initiated a war on behalf of Israel. “Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: US has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian ‘threat,’” Araghchi said in a social media post.
Araghchi further stated, “Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters,” and called for Americans to “take back their country.”
Iran has characterized the U.S. assault as unprovoked, occurring while negotiations regarding a nuclear accord were underway.
Operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury, launched by Israel and the U.S. on Saturday, aimed to create conditions for regime change. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike on a Tehran bunker, along with Iran’s defense minister and several IRGC generals in what was described as the largest aerial attack by the IAF.
Following the strikes, Iran retaliated by firing across the Middle East at Gulf nations and U.S. military bases in the region.
Goldie Katz and Reuters contributed to this report.
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