{"id":318832,"date":"2026-03-03T02:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T02:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/318832\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T02:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T02:26:12","slug":"us-strikes-on-iran-triggered-by-israels-plan-to-launch-attack-rubio-says-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/318832\/","title":{"rendered":"US strikes on Iran triggered by Israel\u2019s plan to launch attack, Rubio says | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s determination to attack Iran and the certainty that US troops would be targeted in response forced the Trump administration to take pre-emptive strikes, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio<\/a>, said, in a new explanation for Washington\u2019s surprise entry into the conflict.<\/p>\n

The rationale drew divided reviews from top members of Congress who on Monday evening received the first briefing by the Trump administration since it ordered the air campaign to begin over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Rubio; the CIA director, John Ratcliffe; and joint chiefs of staff, chair Dan Caine; spoke to the lawmakers behind closed doors in the Capitol ahead of a vote expected later this week in the House of Representatives on a war powers resolution that presents an unlikely opportunity to force Trump to end hostilities against Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone \u2013 the United States or Israel<\/a> or anyone \u2013 they were going to respond, and respond against the United States,\u201d Rubio told reporters at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn\u2019t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the conflict began, the United States and Israel have carried out waves of airstrikes across Iran, and Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile attacks against US-aligned countries across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The air campaign has killed several of Iran\u2019s top military and political leaders, including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US military has acknowledged the deaths of six service members, while the Iranian Red Crescent Society said more than 500 people have been killed in the country.<\/p>\n

Reactions to the administration\u2019s explanation for entering the war split along party lines, with Republicans rushing to defend Trump\u2019s gambit while Democrats condemned what they view as an unnecessary conflict with unclear goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Trump\u2019s war. This is a war of choice. He has no strategy, he has no endgame,\u201d the Senate\u2019s Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer said before going into the briefing.<\/p>\n

As he exited, Schumer said that lawmakers present asked \u201ca whole lot of questions\u201d but he found the officials\u2019 responses \u201ccompletely and totally insufficient. In fact, at least to me, that briefing raised many more questions than it answered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chuck Schumer leaves the briefing from intelligence officials at the Capitol on Monday. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Mark Warner, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said he was worried for the implications of the US allowing Israel to essentially force it into a new war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel. If we equate a threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States, then we are in uncharted territory,\u201d Warner said.<\/p>\n

On Monday night, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told Fox News that Iran had been building new underground sites \u201cthat would make their ballistic missile programs and their atomic bomb programs immune within months\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

In recent interviews with news outlets, Trump has outlined various goals in the war, including destroying Iran\u2019s ballistic missile capabilities and their navy, preventing the country from developing a nuclear weapon and cutting off Tehran\u2019s support of proxy forces elsewhere in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Rubio, however, mentioned only of two goals to reporters: destroying Iran\u2019s ballistic missile capability and their navy. Following the classified briefing, Warner said he was not sure what Trump\u2019s endgame is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the president needs to come before the Congress, for that matter, the American people, and decide amongst these four or five goals that have been laid out, what is the real goal?\u201d the Virginia senator said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the objective? What is our exit plan? What obligation do we have now to the Iranian people if they do rise up, based upon his call for them to go to the streets? And what is the imminent threat to the United States\u2019s interest to cause this conflict?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House and close Trump ally, defended the president\u2019s course of action, saying he had ordered a \u201cdefensive operation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael was determined to act in their own defense here, with or without American support. Why? Because Israel faced what they deem to be an existential threat,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

While the war\u2019s objective, he said, was not \u201cto go in and take out the regime\u201d, he nonetheless cheered the ayatollah\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat happened and in my estimation, that is a great development for freedom loving people around the world,\u201d Johnson told reporters, speaking alongside the Republican chairs of the House intelligence and appropriations committee \u2013 the latter\u2019s presence an indication that lawmakers may soon be asked to approve additional defense funding necessitated by the war.<\/p>\n

Trump ordered the attack on Iran without first seeking Congress\u2019 permission, though Rubio said a group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight \u2013 composed of the Democratic and Republicans leaders in each chamber, as well as the two parties\u2019 top lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees \u2013 were notified before the attack began.<\/p>\n

The House is expected to later this week consider a war powers resolution that, if enacted, force Trump to end hostilities against Iran. It faces a high bar to passage. Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and rarely cross Trump in significant numbers.<\/p>\n

Even if Congress were to approve the resolution, Trump could veto it, and Congress could override that only with a two-thirds majority vote.<\/p>\n

Previous war powers resolutions introduced in this Congress have been voted down<\/a>, and Johnson said he was confident the latest one would not pass the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that we would take the ability of our commander in chief, the president, take his authority away right now to finish this job, is a frightening prospect to me. It\u2019s dangerous,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI am certainly hopeful and I believe we do have votes to put it down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s determination to attack Iran and the certainty that US troops would be targeted in response forced the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-318832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}