Rubio and Trump contradict each other over Iran

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.

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.

The death toll in the war has risen rapidly to over 1000 as of 4 March:

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