2 mins<\/span><\/p>\n<\/button>info<\/title><\/button><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-dates\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Published On 2 Mar 2026<\/span><span aria-hidden=\"true\">2 Mar 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-share\" data-testid=\"rich-share\">\n<div class=\"rich-share__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"rich-share__button-wrapper\"><button class=\"rich-share__button row\" aria-expanded=\"false\">Click here to share on social media<\/p>\n<p><title>share2<\/title><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"rich-share__social-text\">Share<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"google-preferred-source\"><button class=\"google-preferred-source__button\" aria-label=\"Add Al Jazeera on Google\" data-testid=\"google-preferred-source-button\"><title>plus2<\/title><title>google<\/title><span class=\"google-preferred-source__text\">Add Al Jazeera on Google<\/span><\/button><button aria-label=\"See more of Al Jazeera\u2019s trusted journalism by adding us as a preferred source on Google.\" class=\"tooltip-accessible_trigger\"><title>info<\/title><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p>US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested that a planned Israeli attack against Iran determined the timing of Washington\u2019s assault against the government in Tehran.<\/p>\n<p>The United States\u2019 top diplomat told reporters on Monday that Washington was aware that Israel was going to attack Iran, and that Tehran would retaliate against US interests in the region, so American forces struck pre-emptively.<\/p>\n<section class=\"more-on\">\n<h2 class=\"more-on__heading\">Recommended Stories<!-- --> <\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">list of 3 items<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\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 Rubio said.<\/p>\n<p>The US secretary of state\u2019s comments came minutes before the US military confirmed that its death toll from the conflict has risen to six after recovering two bodies from a regional facility struck by Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Tehran retaliated against the joint US-Israeli attacks that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, several top officials and hundreds of civilians with drone and missile launches across the region, including against American bases and assets in the Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio\u2019s assertion highlights the Israeli role in bringing about the war, which Israeli Prime Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/1\/netanyahus-war-analysts-say-trumps-iran-strikes-benefit-israel-not-us\">Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> has been seeking for years.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Netanyahu said the attacks on Iran are happening with the assistance of his \u201cfriend\u201d, US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis coalition of forces allows us to do what I have yearned to do for 40 years,\u201d the Israeli prime minister said in a video message.<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Rubio told reporters on Monday that an attack on Iran had to happen because Tehran was amassing missiles and drones that it would have used to protect its nuclear programme and acquire an atomic bomb.<\/p>\n<p>Israel and the US launched the war less than 48 hours after a round of talks between American and Iranian officials over Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio said the goal of the war is to destroy Iran\u2019s missile and drone programmes, but stressed the US would welcome ending the current ruling system in Tehran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/2\/rubio-suggests-timing-of-us-strikes-on-iran-was-influenced-by-israeli-plans\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secretary of state says he hopes Iranian people would overthrow regime as US military says six service members killed. Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a02 mins info Published On 2 Mar 20262 Mar 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share plus2googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested that … <a title=\"Rubio suggests US strikes on Iran were influenced by Israeli plans | Israel-Iran conflict News\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=22399\" aria-label=\"Read more about Rubio suggests US strikes on Iran were influenced by Israeli plans | Israel-Iran conflict News\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Rubio-suggests-US-strikes-on-Iran-were-influenced-by-Israeli.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22401,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22399\/revisions\/22401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}