The US bombed Iran because Israel had already planned to attack, secretary of state Marco Rubio admitted on Fox News.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces,” Rubio told reporters on Monday. “We knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

But in the same interview, Rubio also said that the US decided to attack Iran “to eliminate the threat of Iran’s short range ballistic missiles and the threat posed by their navy”.

The lack of clarity about the US’ specific aims in attacking Iran, coupled with the latest acknowledgement that US involvement was led by Israel, has drawn sharp criticism from top officials.

Congressman Joaquin Castro said: “Secretary Rubio’s remarks indicate that Israel put US forces in harm’s way by insisting on attacking Iran. And the administration was complicit – joining their war instead of talking them down.”

“There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel,” said Democrat senator Mark Warner. “If we equate a threat to Israel as an imminent threat to the United States, then we are in uncharted territory.”

Warner added the Trump government has changed its reasoning for attacking Iran “four or five times”.

He said: “A week ago it was about the Iranian nuclear capacity, a few days later it was about taking out the ballistic missiles, it was then – in the president’s own words – about regime change. Now we hear it’s about sinking the Iranian fleet”.

The US and Israel launched a first wave of attacks on Tehran this Saturday, resulting in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei.

Iran has since launched missiles across the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar – all of which host US military bases. Lebanon’s Iran-backed Shia militia has also struck back at Israel.

Hundreds of Iranians have now been killed as bombs rain down on the country. Six US military personnel are also confirmed dead.

Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.

From Novara Media via this RSS feed