Planned Israeli action against Iran that would have seen retaliation against American forces prompted the United States to launch its weekend strikes against Tehran, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday evening.
"We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that they 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," Rubio told reporters.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to Rubio's statements in a social media post, saying: "Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: US has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian 'threat.'"
"Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters," Araghchi said, adding that "American people deserve better and should take back their country."
Katz: Israel's attack against Iran was preemptive
On Saturday, Defense Minister Israel Katz described Israel's attack against Iran as pre-emptive.
Iran has said the US assault was unprovoked, occurring as Tehran and Washington were in negotiations on a nuclear accord.
Trump has said the US faced an imminent threat from Iran that justified war, although he gave no specifics, and some US lawmakers said he has shown no evidence to back that assessment.
US-Iran joint operations continue into fourth day as Middle East, Gulf nations draw fire
Israel and the US launched Operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury on early Saturday morning, with the stated aim of creating conditions for regime change.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed by an Israeli strike on a Tehran bunker. Iran’s defense minister and several IRGC generals were also killed in the largest-ever aerial attack by the IAF.
Iran retaliated by firing across the Middle East at Gulf nations and US military bases in the region.
Goldie Katz and Reuters contributed to this report.