Secretary Rubio: US entered war after determining Iran would strike US troops in response to Israeli strikes

The U.S. is focused on eliminating the threats posed by Iran's missile and naval assets, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday, noting that the timing of the campaign was determined by a desire to act preemptively, based on the knowledge that Israel was planning to strike, which would trigger attacks on U.S. forces in the region. 

Speaking to reporters ahead of a briefing to members of Congress, Secretary Rubio responded to the question of why the strikes were carried out, saying, “First, it was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone, the United States or Israel or anyone, they were going to respond and respond against the United States.” 

Secretary Rubio explained that the Iranian regime had already given instructions to target U.S. positions in the region. 

“The orders had been delegated down to the field commanders. It was automatic, and in fact, it bore out to be true, because in fact within an hour of the initial attack on the leadership compound, the missile forces in the south, and in the north for that matter, had already been activated to launch. In fact, those had already been pre-positioned,” he explained. 

Rubio said that U.S. leaders assessed that “if we stood and waited for that attack to come first, before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties.” 

Marco Rubio basically confirmed what we all already knew but no one wanted to say.

The U.S. hit Iran before Israel moved because once Israel struck, Iran was going to hit us.

So we laid them out first.

Now Israel can go in and do the dirty work without us taking the blowback. pic.twitter.com/2ZuenWnPrf

— Peter B (@realpeteyb123) March 2, 2026

Rubio said that “the president made the very wise decision. We 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't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed.” 

However, Rubio also justified the U.S. decision to strike by referring to Iran’s ballistic missile program, noting that Iran was “producing by some estimates, over 100 missiles a month.” 

He compared that to the production of interceptors, which he said was around six or seven per month. Furthermore, Secretary Rubio also said that Iran was building “thousands of attack drones”, despite being under sanctions. 

🚨 JUST IN: Sec. Marco Rubio just said Iran has been producing up to 100 ballistic missiles PER MONTH, meant to be used as a shield for when they get nukes

"Compare that to building 6-7 interceptors per month!"

"You see the attacks now?! Airports. Hotels. Embassies. Facilities… pic.twitter.com/uGj6pnQ9Px

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 2, 2026

Rubio’s remarks caused anger with some Americans. Democrat Congressman Joaquin Castro wrote to X, “Secretary Rubio's remarks indicate that Israel put U.S. forces in harm's way by insisting on attacking Iran. And the administration was complicit – joining their war instead of talking them down.” 

Conservative political commentator Matt Walsh wrote, “So he's flat out telling us that we're in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said.” 

Following Rubio’s statements, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also accused the U.S. of going to war “on behalf of Israel.” 

“Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: U.S. has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian ‘threat’,” Araghchi posted to 𝕏. 

“Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters,” he continued. “American people deserve better and should take back their country.” 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded to Araghchi’s post, saying, “The US and Israel are united more than ever.” 

Desperate.
The US and Israel are united more than ever.
Try something else. https://t.co/uhrZJG6T5w

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) March 3, 2026

In an interview on Fox News Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained that Israel’s decision to strike Iran at the current time was due to attempts by the regime to harden its infrastructure, making “their ballistic missile program and their atomic bomb program immune within months.” 

“If no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future,” Netanyahu said.