US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been forced to backtrack. The hapless Rubio told reporters ahead of a classified briefing to Congress members that Israel made US join the attack on Iran.
US and Israel attacked Iran first on 28 February without provocation. Iran was offering unprecedented concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon
Rubio had previously said that:
a plan from Israel to attack Iran spurred the Trump administration to take pre-emptive strikes.
His statement was then contradicted by US President Donald Trump who said on 3 March:
If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.
Rubio then told reporters by way of backtracking (and without reference to his original statement):
I told you, this had to happen anyway, the president made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program
Once the president made a decision that negotiations were not going to work … the decision was made to strike.
Adding:
The bottom line is this. We, the president, determined we were not going to get hit first.
Democrats go anti-war
US Democrats received a classified briefing from Rubio, defence secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior officials on 3 March. There are limits on what those briefed can disclose to the public.
Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on X on 3 March:
It is so much worse than you thought.
You are right to be worried. The Trump administration has no plan in Iran. This illegal war is based on lies, and it was launched without any imminent threat to our nation.
I just left a classified briefing with the Trump Administration about the war in Iran.
I was worried before, but I’m more worried now. pic.twitter.com/HoSWLVWrR8
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 3, 2026
The death toll in the war has risen rapidly to over 1000 as of 4 March:
At least 1,097 civilians have been killed in U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran since Feb. 28, including 181 children under 10, according to monitor HRANA.
In the past 24 hours, the group recorded 104 attacks across 19 provinces, with strikes hitting military bases, medical… https://t.co/dBi6DraVkL
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 4, 2026
The US-Israel attack on Iran is now pulling in European countries like France, Greece and the UK. Israel has begun a ground invasion of Lebanon. In Washington DC, the heart of US empire, they’re debating matters of procedure.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
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